The International community is expecting more actions than mere glorifying words from the leadership of the Afghan Taliban, which has been ruling the war-ravaged Afghanistan since August 15, 2021. The Taliban claims it has contested and fought its case to have a constructive dialogue with the world. This was for the first time that the Taliban attended the UN-led 3rd Conference on Afghanistan that continued for two days (June 30-July 1). The UN was criticized over its flexibility to accept some of the pre-conditions of the Taliban including the issue of Afghan women rights and the girl’s education.
A special meeting of the Afghan civil society and women rights activists was followed after the two days closed-doors meetings on June 30 and July 1. Afghan women have attached high hopes that their issue would be debated in the conference with the Taliban, however, it did not happen as expected, which disappointed many women.
Doha process; The third UN-Led Conference on Afghanistan
The Taliban side was represented by Zabihullah Mujahid, a key spokesman of the Taliban, led 5-member delegation. Zabihullah Mujahid is considered as from the closed circles of the Taliban chief Sheikh Haibatullah Akhunzada led advisory council of Rahbari Shura. So, sending Mujahid to such a high-level conference is to convey a message to the world that the Taliban is ready to have a meaningful dialogue.
The Taliban delegation main focus was on the lifting of the economic sanctions, restrictions on the Afghan banks, unfreezing of the Afghan funds, withheld by the US, and removal of the Taliban leadership names from the black list. The Taliban informed the conference of its efforts to have peace in the country and its anti-poppy and drugs steps to make the country drugs-free.
However, the international community is pressing Kabul to respect human rights, lift ban on the girl’s education, and women employment to have reasonable life. There should be a broad-based all-inclusive government in Kabul to have representation of all political and ethnic groups. However, the Taliban usually terms these issues as the internal ones.
There are differences between the Taliban point of views and the international community on some of the key issues, like ban on the girl’s education, women employment, women rights, all-inclusive government and reemergence of the terrorist threat to the peace and security of the world. “We have told the conference that we would not allow anyone to interfere in the Afghanistan’s internal issues,” Mujahid told a press conference in Kabul, after returning from Doha, Qatar.
“We have made it clear to the participants of the conference to avoid using some of the Afghanistan’s internal issues as for the political means. We are committed to the Doha peace deal not to allow anyone to use our soil against other countries,” Mujahid reaffirmed his stance.
The Taliban was not invited to the first UN-led Conference, and it did not participate in the second conference as having concerns over some of the agenda issues. This is a positive move that the Taliban, who controls the country, attended the meeting. Apart from the multi-lateral meetings, the Taliban delegation have the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with the diplomats and special envoys on Afghanistan of the different countries.
Pakistan’s special envoy on Afghanistan Asif Durrani attended the conference, backing a prosperous, developed and peaceful Afghanistan as in the interest of all. Ambassador Durrani have a productive meeting with the Taliban delegation on the sideline of the conference. Both sides exchanged views in all the issues concerning both the countries.
Islamabad asks Taliban to keep its promise to take steps to check cross-border terrorist attacks
Pakistan asked the Taliban to keep its promise to take steps to check cross-border terrorist attacks. It was agreed to improve bilateral relations and resolve all the outstanding issues through diplomatic and political ways. The Afghan side highlighted the issues of Pakistan campaign against the Afghan refugees and easing of some trade restrictions.
However, it is unclear whether both sides agreed on any mechanism to continue this dialogue process between Afghanistan and Pakistan. For any political and diplomatic approach, there should be some sort of a permanent mechanism to closely monitor the situation and suggest workable proposals to improve bilateral relations.
It was an opportunity for both the Taliban and Pakistan to discuss some of the bilateral issues in the meeting. Pakistan and Afghan are interdependent on each other, any mistrust could destabilize the whole region.
However, the Afghan Taliban stance on the cross-border terrorism is unclear, and whenever, they are asked about the issue, the Taliban response is that this is ‘Pakistan’s internal issue’, Pakistan should resolve it internally. We are not allowing anyone to misuse our land against any country, which is contrary to the ground realities and available evidences of the terrorists crossing into Pakistan from the Afghan side of the border.
The presence of terrorist outfits from the across the world have been reported by the UN and other multi-lateral organizations, this is not only related to Pakistan. This is in the interest of the global peace and security to convince the Kabul administration to overcome this issue, if needed, it should seek support from the international community to resolve this issue, otherwise, it could endanger the peace of Afghanistan itself.
The UN-led dialogue is a positive initiative to have constructive and positive engagements with the Taliban, as dialogue and political means could make the region stable and prosperous. Isolation of the Taliban could be in the interest of none.
