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UN Rejects Taliban Claims of Lifting Banking Sanctions at Doha Meeting

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, who chaired the third UN-hosted Doha meeting on Afghanistan, refuted the Taliban’s claims of lifting banking sanctions, saying no decision was made at the conference.

During a press conference on Tuesday, June 2, the UN political chief told reporters that while the issue of sanctions on the Taliban regime was discussed at Doha meeting, it is not within the UN’s authority to make this decision.

Earlier, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban chief spokesman who headed the Taliban delegation at the third Doha meeting, had claimed that there was a commitment at the meeting to remove economic and banking sanctions imposed on the regime.

Regarding the issue of women’s rights and government structure, which the Taliban claims are internal matters, the UN official emphasized that these are not domestic issues and the Taliban should adhere to international agreements that Afghanistan has signed.

“Afghanistan has signed on to a number of treaties and international agreements that are focused on human rights and civil rights. They are bound by those agreements. It doesn’t matter if the government changes; the country has signed on as a country,” the UN official said.

“So in that sense, it is not just an internal issue and we made that clear,” she emphasized.

The UN hosted the third meeting of special envoys from over 20 countries on Afghanistan along with a Taliban delegation in Doha, Qatar, on June 30 and July 1. The UN did not invite representatives from Afghan civil society and women to participate in the main session this time.

The UN’s decision not to invite Afghan civil society and women to the main discussion faced widespread criticism, including from the organization’s special rapporteur on Afghanistan, Richard Bennett.

However, the UN political chief defended the decision, saying that the meeting was not an intra-Afghan dialogue and that Afghan citizens and the Taliban are not yet ready to sit down at the table with each other.