Taliban Should Help Revive Hamun Lake & Prevent Humanitarian Disaster: Iranian Official

On Wednesday, Patel stressed that Washington will engage with the Taliban appropriately when it is in the country’s interest.

Patel said that the US officials in charge of Afghanistan affairs will meet with the Taliban in Doha and these meetings are not indications of normalisation or legitimacy of the Taliban.

The Deputy Spokesperson of the US State Department said, “Egregious human rights abuses that the Taliban is undertaking, their marginalisation of Afghan women and girls – all of those things and many others continue to be of immense concern to the United States.”

The US State Department announced on Wednesday that US officials will meet with Taliban representatives and " experts" from the group's key ministries in Doha this week.

According to the US Department of State, the two sides will discuss security, drugs, and women's rights in Afghanistan.

Earlier, sources told Afghanistan International that Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign minister of the Taliban, will visit Doha, Qatar to meet with the American delegation.

The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency reported on Thursday that Fazl Mohammad Haqqani, head of the Taliban embassy in Tehran, met and spoke to Alireza Mahmoudi, director general of the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Iran.

The discussion about the establishment of a joint consular commission has been held at a time when several members of the Parliament of Iran have expressed their opposition to the continuation of Tehran’s diplomatic relations with the Taliban.

Earlier, Fada Hossein Maleki, a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Islamic Republic of Iran, proposed that the Taliban embassy in Tehran should be closed in order to get the Taliban to respond to the water rights issue. According to Maleki, after the President of Iran warned the Taliban about releasing Iran’s share of water rights from Helmand River, it was expected that some action would be taken by Tehran. However, he said that no steps have been taken against the Taliban.

On Sunday, in an interview with Asr-e Iran media, the Iranian member of parliament emphasised that to pursue the Taliban over the water rights issue, the group’s embassy in Tehran should be closed.

The Islamic Republic of Iran handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban in early 2023 and Taliban members have been appointed as the caretaker of the embassy in Tehran.

According to the Taliban, during this visit, there will be discussions regarding "lifting of sanctions, unfreezing the Afghan assets and violation of Afghanistan’s airspace".

In a statement on Wednesday, the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry said that Muttaqi will also discuss bilateral relations with several Qatari government officials.

The US State Department announced on Wednesday that US officials will meet with Taliban representatives from the group's key ministries in Doha this week.

The ministry said that the two sides will discuss security, drugs, and women's rights in Afghanistan.

According to the statement of the US State Department, US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Thomas West, and UN Envoy for Human Rights and Women Affairs Rina Amiri are scheduled to travel to Astana, Kazakhstan, and Doha, Qatar, from July 26 to 31 and meet with the Taliban delegation.

However, a US state department spokesperson has stressed that meetings between US representatives and the Taliban in Doha do not indicate a change in US’ policy towards the group.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar said that the two officials discussed the importance of the international community's support to the people of Afghanistan.

According to this statement, the strategic cooperation between Qatar and the United Kingdom, developments in Palestine, the situation in Syria, and the Iran nuclear agreement were among the other topics discussed by them.

Qatar has close ties with the Taliban, and according to a Reuters report in June, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdulrahman al-Thani had been the first foreign officials to meet Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in Kandahar.

The global rights body insisted that tales of survivors of human rights violations should be heard and the special coordinator should offer recommendations to prevent and provide accountability for rights abuses.

A United Nations Security Council (UNSC)-mandated independent assessment of the international approach to the crisis in Afghanistan is due and HRW made this submission to the special coordinator leading the assessment.

“The situation in Afghanistan right now is the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world,” said Heather Barr, associate women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The independent assessment could guide a more effective international response to this dire situation, but to do so, it needs to give priority to women and girls and other survivors of rights violations.”

HRW stressed that the assessment team should include experts on human rights, including on the rights of women and girls, and that the assessment process should be transparent and provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to provide submissions.

The HRW noted that ever since seizing power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban has continued to strip women of their basic human rights and even banned them from all spheres of life including political, social, and economic. The ban on education for girls and women is hampering Afghanistan’s future while the ban on working of women at even aid organisations is halting the much-needed humanitarian operations across the country, HRW noted.

It also added that the Taliban’s crackdown on the rights of women and girls continues to deepen, as evidenced by recent orders. It stated that the women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan is happening in the context of a broader human rights and humanitarian crisis, with many other abuses as well as severe hardship for much of the population.

The organization also spoke about the rights of media personnel and how the Taliban has decimated the media in the country.

It emphasised that the armed group Islamic State of Khorasan Province continues to carry out deadly attacks targeting civilians and their widespread attacks on the Shia and Hazara communities constitute crimes against humanity.

“The crisis in Afghanistan is overwhelming, and Taliban abuses are deepening what was already a devastating humanitarian crisis,” Barr said. “The independent assessment should aim to urgently redirect the international community’s response to the situation in Afghanistan, which so far has been inconsistent, ineffective, and insufficiently focused on human rights.”

HRW said that the assessment team should ensure that they hear from people who have personally experienced human rights violations, and the family members and associates of those arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, or extrajudicially killed.

A UNSC resolution called for the assessment to include consultations with relevant stakeholders, including Afghan women and Feridun Sinirlioğlu had been appointed as the special coordinator in April.