The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, welcomed the Taliban’s intention to take part in the United Nations conference in Doha. UN website reports.
She stressed that the participation of the de facto authorities is necessary to initiate the process of building trust between them and the international community.
«I would like to emphasize that this position is shared by the Afghan population. We hope that key stakeholders will draw round the negotiating table in Doha... and agree on the next steps to address the uncertainty facing the Afghan people,» Roza Otunbayeva concluded.
The Taliban delegation met with diplomats from different countries in Qatar, Associated Press reports.
AP clarifies that women were excluded from participation in the event, held under the auspices of the UN.
«The official representative of the Taliban called on the international community «not to abandon the Afghan people in difficult times and to actively participate in the reconstruction and economic strengthening of Afghanistan. This was one of the points that the Taliban delegation discussed in Doha at a conference under the auspices of the UN,» the media outlet notes.
This event was the third planned UN conference on the Afghan crisis, taking place in Doha. The Taliban were not invited to the first two because, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, they put forward «unacceptable conditions» for participation. In particular, they demanded that representatives of Afghan civil society be excluded from the negotiations.
This condition was met, but the organizers of the event emphasized that they would hold a separate meeting with Afghanistan’s human rights activists on July 2.
AP reports: Ahead of the meeting, Roza Otunbayeva supported the refusal to include Afghan women in the Doha event, saying that «demands for women’s rights will undoubtedly be made.»
