KABUL: Taliban authorities will attend the third round of UN-led talks on Afghanistan in the capital of Qatar, a government spokesman said on Sunday after declining an invitation to the previous round.
The Taliban government’s participation in the conference of special foreign envoys to Afghanistan came into question after it was not included in the first round of talks and then refused an invitation to a second round in February.
“A delegation from the Islamic Emirate will participate in the upcoming conference in Doha. They will represent Afghanistan there and express Afghanistan’s position,” Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
The Doha talks, scheduled for June 30 and July 1, have already faced criticism from women’s groups.
Mujahed told Afghan media on Sunday that the delegation – yet to be announced – would arrive because the agenda for the talks seemed “favorable to Afghanistan.”
The agenda includes “important topics such as aid to Afghanistan and creating opportunities for investors in Afghanistan, which are important,” he said.
However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi warned in a social media post
According to the UN, the series of talks, launched by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in May 2023, aims to “increase international engagement in Afghanistan in a more coherent, coordinated and organized way.”
Civil society groups that included women were invited to the February talks, but the Taliban government refused to participate unless its members could be the sole representatives of Afghanistan.
She also asked for a meeting with Guterres, who then said the conditions for participation “were unacceptable.”
In recent weeks, a number of UN representatives and international envoys have held meetings with the Taliban government regarding further talks in Doha, at which Guterres will not be present.
Diplomatic sources told AFP there are plans to hold consultations with Afghan civil society groups before and after the next talks, but they will not attend meetings involving Taliban authorities.
Sources say the official meetings were to cover financial and economic issues, as well as anti-drug activities.
Several civil society groups urged the UN to prioritize women’s rights and include Afghan women.
“The world must provide Afghan citizens and women with platforms to discuss the future of their country,” Afghan women’s rights activist Hoda Khamosh, now based in Norway, told AFP.
“Yet they are not heard because the world interacts with the Taliban anyway, even if they claim not to recognize them.”
The international community has been grappling with its approach to the Taliban government since its return to power in 2021, still not officially recognized by any other country.
The Taliban government has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam under which women are subject to laws described by the United Nations as “gender apartheid.”
Heather Barr, deputy director for women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, said the Taliban should not have been able to make demands about the terms of the meetings given their policies targeting women.
“It is unthinkable that diplomats could gather to discuss Afghanistan in the middle of such a crisis and do so without women’s rights as a major issue on the agenda and without Afghan women being full participants in the discussion,” she told AFP.
In a statement, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Rosemary DiCarlo extended an advance invitation to Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi for talks during a visit to Afghanistan in May, the statement said.
A key element of the talks held in the Persian Gulf country, which has hosted the Taliban during peace talks with the United States for years, is the independent UN assessment of Afghanistan published at the end of last year.
The assessment, supported by Western countries, suggested that recognition of the Taliban authorities would involve lifting restrictions on women’s rights and access to education.
It also recommends the appointment of a special UN envoy, an idea rejected by the Taliban government.