ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – In an effort to project power ahead of the UN meeting in Doha, the Taliban hosted diplomats from the region for a conference in Kabul. The one-day event launched on Monday, January 29, brought together envoys and ambassadors from 11 regional countries to Kabul.
According to the Taliban’s Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, who hosted the diplomats, the purpose of the meeting was to promote positive interaction between the Taliban and regional countries and to foster collaborative efforts to maximize economic opportunities.
However, it was obvious that the meeting was only an effort by the authorities in Kabul to position themselves for the upcoming UN conference in Doha, where the Secretary General is expected to introduce his special envoy for Afghanistan, a move repeatedly criticized by the Taliban.
The UN Security Council in its December 27 resolution asked Secretary General Antonio Guterres to appoint a Special Envoy for Afghanistan as was recommended by an earlier assessment that the Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioğlu submitted in November.
The Taliban, who have tried in the past two years to establish diplomatic relations with the outside world that does not recognize its government, believes that the appointment of a special envoy will further brand their government as un-ordinary and abnormal.
In his opening speech at the conference, Muttaqi wasted no time in voicing his regime’s displeasure at the UN decision. He said that “imposed imported models” were not effective for Afghanistan and that “alien prescriptions,” including plans proposed by the UN, had “led to nothing but war, instability and occupation.”
The UN Secretary General already has a special representative in Kabul leading the organization’s diplomatic mission, UNAMA, which Muttaqi argued renders the new appointment unnecessary.
The outside world, including countries friendly to the Taliban such as Russia and Iran, have repeatedly voiced concerns about the lack of representation of non-Pashtun and non-Taliban political forces in the group’s government.
Iran’s special representative for Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, who spoke at the event, emphasized the importance of non-discriminatory governance within Afghanistan, a rhetoric conveying Tehran’s displeasure with the exclusion of political forces friendly to its regional interests from the Taliban’s government.
Qomi also said that the meeting’s outcome should reflect the principles of “peaceful coexistence with neighbours as vital components of regional development.”
Previously, Sayed Rasool Mousavi, General Director of South Asia Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, had said that the presence of Afghanistan’s neighbours in the upcoming meeting underlined their special attention to the peace, stability and well-being of the Afghan people and security in the region.
Although the Taliban managed to gather diplomats from several countries, including China, Russia, India, Turkey, Indonesia and Central Asia, one absence was obvious: the Pakistani Special Envoy to Afghanistan Asif Durrani. While Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Kabul was present, no explanation was offered by Islamabad or Taliban authorities in Kabul about the reasons behind Mr. Durrani’s absence.
Relations between Kabul and Islamabad have soared in recent weeks over what Pakistan argues is the Taliban’s support and harbouring of Pakistani militant groups such as Tahreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir said last week that his country will pursue those who target their children.
The Taliban, believed by many to be a close proxy of the Pakistani security and intelligence apparatus, have repeatedly denied these allegations. Hours after Munir’s speech in Islamabad, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir said that there was no TTP member present in Afghanistan.
The Monday meeting was the first of its kind for the Taliban, hosting nearly a dozen senior regional diplomats at once.
The meeting comes as another UN conference on the situation of Afghanistan is underway in three weeks on February 18. The second meeting of special envoys to be hosted by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will also bring Afghan civil rights activists, representatives of Afghan women and the Taliban to Doha, Qatar.
