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Agence France-Presse

Taliban authorities will attend the third round of United Nations-hosted talks on Afghanistan in the Qatari capital, a government spokesman said on Sunday, after snubbing an invitation to the previous round.
The Taliban government’s participation in the conference of foreign special envoys to Afghanistan had been in doubt after it was not included in the first round and then refused an invitation to the second round in February.
“A delegation of the Islamic Emirate will participate in the coming Doha conference. They will represent Afghanistan there and express Afghanistan’s position,” Zabihullah Mujahid said.
The talks in Doha are scheduled for June 30 and July 1, and have already been criticised by women’s groups.

Mujahid told Afghan media on Sunday that a delegation – yet to be announced – would attend because the talks’ agenda appeared “beneficial to Afghanistan”.
The agenda includes “topics such as aid for Afghanistan and creating opportunities for investors in Afghanistan, which are important”, he said.
Launched by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in May 2023, the series of talks aim to “increase international engagement with Afghanistan in a more coherent, coordinated and structured manner”, according to the UN.
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.
It also requested to meet Guterres, who at the time said the set of conditions to participate “were not acceptable”.
In recent weeks, multiple UN representatives and international envoys have held meetings with the Taliban government on the next Doha talks, which Guterres will not attend.
Diplomatic sources said there were plans to consult Afghan civil society groups before and after the next talks, but that they would not take part in meetings that include the Taliban authorities.
The sources said the official meetings were due to cover finance and economic issues, as well as counternarcotics efforts.

Several civil society groups have urged the UN to prioritise women’s rights and include Afghan women.
“The world must provide platforms for the people and women of Afghanistan to discuss the future of their country,” said Afghan women’s rights activist Hoda Khamosh, now based in Norway.
“Still, they are not heard because the world is interacting anyway with the Taliban, even if they say they do not recognise them.”
The international community has wrestled with its approach to the Taliban government since it returned to power in 2021, still not officially recognised by any other state.
The Taliban government has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women subjected to laws characterised by the UN as “gender apartheid”.


Human Rights Watch’s Associate Women’s Rights Director, Heather Barr, said the Taliban should not have been allowed to make demands on the conditions of the meetings, considering 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 being the main issue on the agenda and Afghan women being full participants in the discussion,” she said.
Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, extended Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqi an advance invitation to the talks during a visit to Afghanistan in May, a statement said.
A key element of the talks held in the Gulf state, which hosted the Taliban during years of peace talks with the United States, is a UN independent assessment on Afghanistan released late last year.
The assessment, backed by Western nations, suggested recognition of the Taliban authorities be tied to the removal of restraints on women’s rights and access to education.
It also recommends the appointment of a UN special envoy, which the Taliban government has rejected.


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Afghanistan

Afghan Taliban government says to attend next round of UN talks in Doha

An Afghan Taliban stands guard as people gather to watch local wrestling matches at the Shalamar festival in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in May. Photo: EPA-EFE

Taliban’s security patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, in July 2023. The Taliban government is still not officially recognised by any other state. Photo: EPA-EFE

Women hold placards during a protest to demand rights of Afghan women from Taliban government in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 10. Photo: EPA-EFE

Russia invites Afghanistan’s Taliban to St Petersburg forum, as West ties worsen over Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the plenary session of The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2023. Photo:  EPA-EFE/Handout/RIA

Pakistan arrests 11 militants involved in Chinese engineers’ killing

A bridge with the flags of China and Pakistan over the River Indus, at the site of Dasu Dam or Dasu Hydropower Project, in Kohistan district Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near Dasu, Pakistan. Photo: Reuters

China pressures Afghanistan’s Taliban to stop attacks on its interests in Pakistan, dangles economic carrot

Police officers examine the site of suicide bombing in Shangla,  Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on March 26. The attack killed five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver. Photo: AP

Then Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Pakistan’s then Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi pose after a meeting in Islamabad in 2023. Photo: AFP

A police officer examines the site of a bomb blast in Quetta in Pakistan’s troubled province of Balochistan in 2023. Photo: AFP

Pakistani security officials inspect the Chaman Railway Station after a bomb was found in Chaman, near the Afghan border in Pakistan in 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

A billboard is seen welcoming Chinese Vice Prime Minister He Lifeng ahead of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Islamabad in 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

Afghan women become YouTubers to bypass Taliban work bans: ‘had to do something to generate income’

YouTube channels not only provide income, but also serve as a means for women to communicate their messages, experiences and aspirations, one analyst said. Photo: Shutterstock

Pakistan police link deadly attacks on Chinese workers to Taliban affiliate’s ‘broken switch’ terror cell

Pakistani security officials inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack on Chinese nationals in Bisham, Pakistan, on March 26. Photo: EPA-EFE

Pakistani soldiers check documents as people enter Pakistan at the border with Afghanistan in Chaman, Pakistan, last month. The suicide bomber is believed to have driven his explosives-laden car through several checkpoints without it once being searched. Photo: EPA-EFE

Pakistani emergency services transport an injured Chinese national caught in the July 2021 blast that hit a bus carrying engineers to the site of Dasu dam in Pakistan. Photo: Rescue 1122 Handout/EPA-EFE

Security personnel inspect the site of the suicide bombing near Besham city in the Shangla district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on March 26. Photo: AFP

Volunteers transport the coffin of a Chinese national killed in the suicide attack near Besham city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on March 26. Photo: AFP

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World

Middle East

A delegation will attend as the talks’ agenda appears ‘beneficial to Afghanistan’, but civil society groups criticise lack of focus on women’s rights


A delegation will attend as the talks’ agenda appears ‘beneficial to Afghanistan’, but civil society groups criticise lack of focus on women’s rights.
