Political Dialogue Among Afghans is Key Solution to the Crisis, Says US Envoy
U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West has said that participants at the Doha meeting agreed that political dialogue among Afghans is a central part of the solution to all challenges.
On Wednesday, Thomas West on Twitter said that the Doha talks were not about the recognition of the Taliban’s de facto regime. However, the focus was identifying shared interests and how to collectively approach the Taliban and deal with critical issues including terrorism, repression of women and girls, devastating humanitarian crisis, and drug trafficking in Afghanistan.
He further added that countries may have different priorities for these interests, however, the general consensus was on intra-Afghan dialogue to find a solution to the Afghan crisis. The senior U.S. diplomat reiterated that recognition of the Taliban was not part of the discussion, however, the special envoys discussed ways to engage with the Taliban and address key challenges Afghanistan is currently plagued with.
Prior to the Doha talks, protests were seen in Afghanistan and overseas, demanding the participants not recognize the Taliban’s de facto regime. Protestors had warned that recognizing the Taliban means recognizing gender apartheid.
The UN-led meeting took place behind closed doors between May 1-2 in Doha Qatar, chaired by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and special envoys of 25 countries and international organizations.
The United Nations had neither invited the Taliban representatives nor anyone from the exiled Afghan political factions or civil society activists.
Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s office in Qatar described Doha Talks as “single-sided and ineffective”. Afghanistan is an independent country and its interests should be heard at such high-level meetings, instead of being ignored, he added.
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