Feridun Sinirlioğlu, the UN Special Coordinator, met the Taliban’s interior and foreign ministers in Kabul on Thursday. Apparently, Sinirlioğlu asked the two Taliban senior officials to "take the UN's concerns seriously”.
The Office of the UN Special Coordinator for Afghanistan has not yet released a statement about Thursday's meeting with the Taliban's interior and foreign ministers.
However, according to the Taliban's Ministry of Interior, during his meeting with Haqqani, Sinirlioglu emphasised on "the fundamental rights of the Afghan people" and told the Taliban official that "they must take concerns of the United Nations seriously”.
Meanwhile, Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, had addressed the Security Council and in an unprecedented manner criticised the Taliban government on Wednesday, describing it as "unpopular", ethnocentric”, and patriarchal.
She stressed that the Taliban will not be recognised without respecting the rights of Afghan women.
However, during the meeting with the UN Special Coordinator, the Taliban's interior minister spoke about the achievements of the Taliban in the fight against ISIS and drugs. Haqqani has called the concerns of neighbouring countries of Afghanistan about ISIS threats as an "exaggeration" and "propaganda in favour of ISIS".
Despite the Taliban's emphasis on suppressing ISIS in Afghanistan, the country’s neighbours, who enjoy good ties with the Taliban, are not convinced by these statements of the Taliban and have warned about the danger of ISIS and the spread of instability to neighbouring countries and the region.
Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations on Wednesday, expressed concerns about the presence of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and the expansion of drug production in Afghanistan.
Iravani had addressed the UN Security Council and said that the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan and the region feel threatened by the terror and drug issues.
The Taliban’s foreign minister, however, spoke about the group’s expectations from the UN Special Coordinator’s report and asked him to consider the "sensitivities and realities" of Afghanistan in his report on the situation in the country.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, claimed that the group has "ensured women's rights within the framework of Islam" despite the criticism of the UN member states about the ban on women’s right to work and education during Wednesday’s Security Council meeting.
Muttaqi has called the international sanctions against the Taliban "collective punishments and orders of foreigners". Referring to what he called the "achievements of the Taliban without external support", the group’s foreign minister told the UN Special Coordinator that the countries of the world should fulfil their "responsibilities" towards Afghanistan.
