The Foreign Ministry of Pakistan has declared that Asif Durrani, Pakistan's special envoy for Afghanistan, will attend the upcoming Doha meeting dedicated to Afghanistan affairs.
Scheduled by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the second Doha meeting will take place on 18 and 19 February.
Similarly, the US Department of State has confirmed the participation of Thomas West and Rina Amiri as the American representatives.
The meeting is set to bring together special envoys from a range of countries and international organisations, focusing on the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.
The UN's earlier invitation to the Taliban has been met with caution, as the group awaits further details on the meeting's participants and objectives before confirming its attendance.
Acknowledging the critical role of Afghan women and civil society, the UN has extended invitations to their representatives for this meeting, though specifics on the invitees remain undisclosed.
Amidst these preparations, a wave of protest calls by Afghan citizens in various cities has emerged on social media, highlighting opposition to the Taliban's potential involvement in the meeting. Critics emphasise that the Taliban, facing allegations of severe human rights abuses and war crimes, should be addressed in international legal forums rather than political negotiations.
The capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, hosted the sixth session focused on Afghanistan's security on Friday, gathering security officials from Iran, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.
At the onset of this summit, leaders of the participating delegations engaged in discussions with the Kyrgyz President, as reported by media outlets in Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
Preliminary to the summit, there were strategic meetings among the security council secretaries and advisors from the countries involved.
Originating from a proposal by Tehran, this meeting marks the sixth iteration, taking place in different cities across the region. It serves as a platform for top security officials to deliberate on Afghanistan's pivotal security and political challenges and their broader impact on the region and its populace.
Details regarding the summit's discussions have been scant in media coverage.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Ali Akbar Ahmadian, representing Ali Khamenei and acting as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, articulated Iran's stance on the region's political and security matters. However, the report did not delve into the particulars of these positions.
RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, earlier conveyed remarks by Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian Security Council's Secretary, indicating the presence of 20 terrorist groups with an estimated 23,000 militants in Afghanistan under the Taliban's dominion.
Patrushev highlighted the persistent issue of drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Central Asia, cautioning that narcotics, produced within Afghanistan, are expected to be smuggled from longstanding reserves to Central Asian territories shortly.
Vladimir Voronkov, Under Secretary General for Counterterrorism announced that the Taliban's actions have significantly hindered ISIS-K's ability to conduct attacks within Afghanistan.
Voronkov, however, highlighted that ISIS remains a significant threat to international peace and security, particularly in areas of conflict.
In a report presented to the UN Security Council about ISIS activities in Afghanistan, Voronkov remarked, "According to reports, the Taliban's actions have impacted ISIS-K's ability to launch attacks inside Afghanistan."
Yet, it was also noted by UN experts that the Taliban continues its associations with the Al-Qaeda.
Despite these efforts, ISIS continues to launch attacks in Afghanistan, resulting in numerous casualties among Afghans, notably affecting the Hazara community in Kabul and Herat.
Voronkov pointed out the escalating threat of ISIS in the regions of West Africa and the Sahel, along with an increase in the group's assaults in its former bases in Iraq and Syria.
Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, mentioned that persistent challenges in the Middle East, as well as in Western and Central Asia, have spurred ISIS to reassert its presence in these areas.
UN experts last month indicated that despite defeats in Iraq in 2017 and Syria subsequently, ISIS still maintains a force of three to five thousand fighters in these nations. Although the frequency of attacks by the group in Iraq has lessened, their activities in Syria have surged since November.
Additionally, the head of the UN Office of Counterterrorism stated the presence of ISIS has diminished in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, and Mozambique.
He also elaborated on the international efforts to disrupt ISIS's financial networks, revealing that these measures have reduced the group's financial reserves to between $10 to $25 million from the several hundreds of millions it once had.
The Islamic State group, or ISIS, which branched off from Al-Qaeda over ten years ago, managed to attract substantial worldwide support and at one point controlled extensive territories in Iraq and Syria under the guise of the Islamic State.
Nikolai Patrushev, the Russian Security Council's Secretary, has warned that narcotics produced in Afghanistan are currently being smuggled into Central Asian nations from existing old reserves.
Patrushev highlighted that data show no decline in the smuggling of drugs from Afghanistan into Central Asia.
The Secretary of the Russian Security Council issued this caution during a session in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, which focused on the situation in Afghanistan, particularly the issue of narcotics trafficking into Central Asia.
According to a report by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Friday, Patrushev has been quoted as saying, "Shortly, we should anticipate the illicit distribution of opium drugs by criminal organisations from the reserves accumulated in previous years."
He stressed on the critical need for detecting these consignments and pinpointing their potential storage locations.
Just a week prior, Tajikistan's Drug Control Agency declared, contrary to the Taliban's prohibition on drug production declarations, that Tajikistan has not observed any reduction in drug trafficking from Afghanistan.
The agency has reported that narcotics production is being carried out in concealed labs within Afghanistan.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime previously indicated in a report that opium cultivation and opium production in Afghanistan had seen a reduction of 95%. However, the manufacture of synthetic narcotics, particularly methamphetamine, has seen an upsurge in Afghanistan under the Taliban's governance.
Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban's Minister of Refugees, issued a stern warning to nations harbouring and backing the group's adversaries, asserting that the Taliban will not overlook their antagonism.
Haqqani emphasised, "Enemies of this group will be targeted no matter where they are found."
He urged countries, without directly mentioning Uzbekistan, to return any [military] assets of Afghanistan to the Taliban's control.
During an event marking the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Haqqani made it clear, "Anyone who confronts us, whether through intellectual, media, military, political, or financial means, will face our [response]."
While not singling out any nation, it noted that Tajikistan has provided a platform for the National Resistance Front, led by Ahmad Massoud, and has recently hosted gatherings of the group's critics.
The Minister also cautioned against efforts to "instigate war" in Afghanistan by training the group's foes, underscoring that such actions will remain unforgotten.
Highlighting airspace violations, he stated that nations should prevent drones from using their airspace for strikes against Afghanistan, asserting, "Afghans will eternally remember their hostility."
The United States operates air bases in the region, such as in Qatar, where drones are launched for missions in Afghanistan for surveillance and attack terrorist factions like Al-Qaeda.
One such strike resulted in the death of Al-Qaeda's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Kabul.
This incident isn't the first instance of a Taliban official issuing a warning to the group's foreign detractors. Previously, Saeed Khosty, a former spokesperson for the Taliban’s interior ministry, had also threatened Taliban opponents residing abroad, revealing that the Taliban is prepared with hundreds of volunteers to target their expatriate adversaries.
Taliban’s opposition groups, encompassing the armed resistance fronts, protesting women, and various other factions, have unveiled a joint statement concerning the upcoming Doha meeting, marking a consensus among the opponents of the group.
Afghanistan International had access to an early draft of this joint statement, which outlined the groups' collective dissent against the Taliban's invitation to the Doha gathering.
Released on Thursday, the document critiques the current situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, spotlighting issues such as "the denial of fundamental rights, war crimes, abductions, torture, killing of women and former government associates, imposition of gender apartheid, acts of genocide, forced migrations, and the appropriation of properties of native populations across different regions of Afghanistan, alongside the cultural antagonism" and the Taliban's backing of terrorist organisations.
The political entities assert that extending invitations to the Taliban for international forums would only embolden their violent conduct.
They have urged the United Nations to ensure the inclusion of all significant Afghan political sides in the Doha meeting, aiming to pave the way for "establishing a government that reflects the people's will”, through a comprehensive national process.
The statement highlights the critical nature of continuing humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, distinguishing between “humanitarian assistance for the needy and economic interactions with the Taliban group”.
Furthermore, the statement calls for a halt to any political or diplomatic engagements with the Taliban without the representation of the Afghan populace, echoing the demands of political groups and the general public for consideration at the Doha meeting.
The anti-Taliban factions and protesting women in the statement convey that "collaborating with the Taliban would not serve the Afghan people's interests and would instead stir the group further away from humanitarian principles."
These groups have also announced their readiness to collaborate with the UN's special envoy to Afghanistan, with an anticipation for a decision regarding this envoy's appointment at the Doha meeting.
Signatories of this statement include the Afghanistan Freedom Front, National Resistance Front, women's protest movements, Islamic Unity Party, National Resistance Council for Salvation of Afghanistan, Islamic Party, Jamiat-e-Islami, National Islamic Movement Party, Dawat-e-Isalmi, and the Islamic Unity Party of the People of Afghanistan, among others.
The Justice and Freedom Party, the Greater Eastern Council, the Greater Kandahar Council, the Greater Northern Council, the Process for Protecting the Values of Jihad and Resistance of the People of Afghanistan, and the People's Solidarity Party of Afghanistan have also endorsed this statement.
Scheduled for February 18, and 19, the Doha meeting on Afghanistan, under the auspices of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, will witness participation from special representatives of over 20 countries.
Stéphane Dujarric, the Secretary-General's spokesperson, affirmed the UN's objective to foster a unified strategy towards engaging with the Taliban at the Doha meeting.