On this picture launched by the Taliban Spokesperson’s Workplace, Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban authorities who heads the Taliban delegation, heart proper, speaks with Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov throughout a gathering in Doha, Qatar, Sunday, June 30, 2024. A Taliban delegation attends a United Nations-led assembly in Qatar on Afghanistan after organizers mentioned girls could be excluded from the assembly. The 2-day assembly is the third U.N.-sponsored assembly on the Afghan disaster. | Photograph credit score: AP
Taliban officers mentioned on July 1 they might press the worldwide group on financial sanctions as they attended a UN-organized summit in Doha for the primary time with particular representatives in Afghanistan.
The 2-day assembly started on June 30 and is the third such summit to be held in Qatar in simply over a yr, however the first to incorporate the Taliban authorities who seized energy in Afghanistan in 2021.
On X, previously Twitter, senior International Ministry official Zakir Jalaly mentioned the Taliban authorities delegation would use the July 1 conferences to handle “monetary and banking sanctions” and the “challenges” they pose to Afghanistan’s economic system.
His assertion adopted a gap salvo launched on June 30 by the pinnacle of the Taliban delegation, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, when he addressed greater than 20 UN envoys and officers.
“Afghans are questioning why they’re being focused with teams of individuals on the idea of unilateral and multilateral sanctions,” Mujahid mentioned, questioning whether or not the present sanctions had been a “truthful observe” after “wars and insecurity for nearly half a century on account of overseas invasions and interference.”
The talks are being held to debate better engagement with the impoverished nation of greater than 40 million individuals and a extra coordinated response, together with financial points and counternarcotics efforts.
Following the return of the Taliban to energy, the worldwide group has needed to confront its technique for coping with Afghanistan’s new rulers.
The Taliban authorities in Kabul has not been formally acknowledged by every other authorities since taking energy.
It has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with girls topic to legal guidelines characterised by the UN as “gender apartheid”.
The inclusion of a Taliban delegation however the exclusion of civil society and ladies’s rights teams sparked outrage, with organisations accusing the UN and attendees of legitimising the Taliban authorities’s insurance policies.
“Giving in to the Taliban’s circumstances to safe their participation within the talks might danger legitimising their institutionalised system of gender-based oppression,” Amnesty Worldwide chief Agnes Callamard mentioned in an announcement forward of the talks.
Taliban authorities have repeatedly claimed that the rights of all residents are assured by Islamic legislation.
Mr Mujahid mentioned diplomats ought to “discover methods of interplay and understanding slightly than confrontation” regardless of “pure” variations on coverage.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan can be concerned with establishing constructive ties with Western nations,” Mujahid mentioned.
“Like all sovereign state, we maintain sure spiritual and cultural values and public aspirations that have to be acknowledged.”