Deputy chief of UN visits Kandahar for talks with Taliban

The United Nations’ deputy secretary-general met the deputy governor of Afghanistan’s Kandahar, provincial authorities said on Friday, a rare meeting by a foreign envoy with the Taliban’s leaders in its southern heartland.

Amina Mohammed was visiting Afghanistan last week and had already met Taliban authorities in Kabul, as well as UN staff and aid groups, to discuss ways to promote and protect women’s rights.

Her visit came less than a month after Taliban authorities banned most female non-governmental organisation workers, leading many NGOs to partially suspend operations.

A statement from Kandahar’s information office said Deputy Governor Maulvi Hayatullah Mubarak had conveyed to Ms Mohammed that the Taliban administration wanted to have a strong relationship with the world and asked that its leaders be removed from sanctions lists and its administration able to send a representative to the United Nations.

The UN’s mission to Afghanistan did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the meeting and what was discussed.

The UN last month postponed for a second time a decision on whether the Afghan Taliban administration would be able to send an ambassador to New York.

Its administration has not been formally recognised by any government since sweeping to power as foreign forces withdrew in 2021.

Kandahar is considered the historical birthplace of the Taliban and is home to its supreme spiritual leader who has the final say on major decisions.

The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a major aid group that has suspended work in Afghanistan, stressed this month that it was important for the international community to engage with leadership in Kandahar, saying that many officials in Kabul had signalled the orders to restrict female workers had come from there.