UN chief to host May meeting on Afghanistan in Doha

UNITED NATIONS - The UN secretary general is convening an international meeting on Afghanistan 1-2 May in Doha, where envoys will seek a “durable way forward” for the war-ravaged nation, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Antonio Guterres will host the closed-door gathering featuring special envoys on Afghanistan from various countries who aim to “clarify expectations” on concerns including the Taliban authorities’ restrictions on women, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

“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,” Dujarric told reporters at UN headquarters.

Guterres “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.”

It was unclear at this stage whether or not Taliban leadership would be represented at the talks.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has launched an assessment of its operations following a ban on Afghan women working for the world body.

The announcement of the meet in Qatar’s capital followed remarks Monday by UN Deputy SecretaryGeneral Amina Mohammed, who addressed the prospect of the envoys gathering to discuss the “baby steps” that could put the Taliban government 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 talk 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.

Dujarric 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 4 April the Taliban authorities 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.

The announcement of the Doha meeting comes a day after the UN said the number of Afghans in poverty had nearly doubled to 34 million since the Taliban takeover.

There is no contemporary census data for Afghanistan but the UN uses a population estimate of 40 million, meaning 85% of the nation is projected to be in poverty.