UNITED NATIONS, Apr 20 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene envoys on Afghanistan from various countries next month to try to find a unified approach to dealing with the Taliban authorities, the United Nations has announced.
But his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric parried reporters’ questions on whether or not Taliban leadership would be represented at the talks, saying,” At this point, the meeting will bring together the UN and relevant regional organizations,” he added.
“There will indeed be a meeting in Doha on May 1st and 2nd, which the Secretary-General will host, with special envoys on Afghanistan from various countries,” Dujarric, the spokesperson said earlier at the regular noon briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.
“The purpose of this kind of small group meeting is for us to reinvigorate the international engagement around the common objectives for a durable way forward on the situation in Afghanistan,” he added.
The announcement about the meeting comes at a time when the Taliban have started enforcing a ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations in Afghanistan.
The secretary-general “continues to believe that it’s an urgent priority to advance an approach based on pragmatism and principles, combined with strategic patience, and to identify parameters for creative, flexible, principled and constructive engagement.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan has launched a review of its operations following a ban on Afghan women working for the world body.
The word about the meeting in Qatar’s capital followed remarks Monday by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who addressed the prospect of the envoys gathering to discuss the “baby steps” that could put the Taliban back on the pathway to recognition by the international community, albeit with conditions attached.
“There are some who believe this can never happen. There are others that say, well, it has to happen,” Mohammed said in a speech at Princeton University.
“The Taliban clearly want recognition… and that’s the leverage we have.”
But Dujarric, the spokesman, on Wednesday stressed that Mohammed “was not in any way implying that anyone else but member states have the authority for recognition” of Afghanistan’s government.
Last December, the UN General Assembly approved a decision by its credentialing committee to postpone any approval of Kabul’s request to accredit a new ambassador representing them at the United Nations following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
He said at Princeton the UN deputy secretary-general – who is deeply involved in the issue — spoke merely about “reaffirming the need for the international community to have a coordinated approach regarding Afghanistan.”
“This includes finding common ground on the longer-term vision for the country, and sending a unified message to the de facto authorities on the imperative to ensure women have their rightful place in the Afghan society,” he added.
On April 4, the Taliban banned Afghan women from working for UN offices countrywide, sparking opprobrium from the West and a United Nations review of the world body’s Afghanistan operations.
On Tuesday, former US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said in a tweet that the UN chief will be hosting a meeting in Doha of special envoys for Afghanistan from around the world on May 1.
Khalilzad said he recommends four measures for the event: Full implementation of the Doha Agreement should be embraced as the common goal; a roadmap for implementation, considering the current conditions in Afghanistan, is needed; to develop the road map, the Secretary-General and the Envoys should have a session with the Taliban during their deliberations; and as a follow-up to the meeting, the Secretary-General should appoint a personal envoy to work with Afghans and the relevant internationals in developing and implementing the roadmap.
This comes as the head of the UN Development Programme said as quoted by the Associated Press on Tuesday that the United Nations is ready to take the “heartbreaking” decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May if it can’t persuade the Taliban to let local women work for the organization.
But on Tuesday, the UN spokesperson said that the UN had no plans to pullout, saying, “We’re staying in Afghanistan.”