Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, has said that Afghanistan might become very dangerous without a strategic roadmap.
Speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies on Friday, Al-Thani said, “The absence of the strategic overview and the roadmap for the way forward we will just keep trying to solve small problems and defer the bigger problems for the future which unfortunately might become very dangerous.”
“We will not be able to progress as long as our efforts are just fragmented by trying to identify and address some tactical issues over the strategic issues in Afghanistan,” he added, indicating “Unfortunately, it will suffer from it in the near future whether it’s economic, or social and we have seen this throughout the last two years.”
Additionally, he stated that Qatar “succeeded in mediating between the Taliban and the United States which resulted in the end of a war that spanned more than two decades.”
Qatar played a critical role in one of the biggest humanitarian airlifts in history, successfully evacuating more than 80,000 individuals through Qatar, he added.
During his speech, the Qatari PM and Foreign Minister stressed international engagement with the Taliban.
“We strongly believe that disengaging with the Taliban will create a bigger chaos and will create a vacuum in the country… we kept encouraging all the parties to continue engaging…” he asserted.
Nevertheless, the international community has urged the Taliban to respect and preserve human rights and form an inclusive government, among other demands for engagement.
Two years after their takeover of power, the Taliban has committed grave violations of human rights against women and girls, former government officials and security forces, civil society activists, and civilians that include extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, and other ill-treatment.
