On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene international envoys in a secret location in Doha in an increasingly desperate attempt to influence Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership.
The United Nations considers this to be the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, and Guterres’ predicament has been exacerbated by the Taliban administration’s decision to prohibit girls from attending school and most women from working, even for UN agencies.
According to diplomats, the Taliban government, which retook power in August 2021, will be absent from the negotiations with officials from approximately 25 countries and international organizations.
A tiny number Afghan women protested in Kabul on Saturday in opposition to any international recognition of the Taliban regime. However, the United Nations and Western powers are adamant that this will not be discussed.
“Any kind of recognition of the Taliban is completely off the table,” said US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel.
Apart from confirming that the Taliban leadership is not on the list of participants, the UN has refused to say where the talks will take place in Qatar’s capital or who will join Guterres.
According to diplomats, the UN Secretary-General will provide an update on a review of the global body’s essential assistance mission in Afghanistan, which was requested in April after Afghan authorities prohibited Afghan women from working with UN organizations.
The UN has stated that it has a “appalling choice” about whether to continue its massive operation in the country of 38 million people.
Torn apart by the Ukraine conflict and other global tensions, the UN Security Council powers came together on Thursday to denounce the restrictions on Afghan women and children and call on all countries to seek “an urgent reversal” of the policies.
The Afghan foreign ministry denied the request, stating that the prohibition is “an internal social issue in Afghanistan.”
