US officers met Taliban representatives in Doha, the place they denounced the deteriorating human rights state of affairs in Afghanistan — notably for girls and ladies, in line with an announcement from the State Division on Monday.
The American delegation to the discussions within the Qatari capital on Sunday “expressed deep concern concerning the humanitarian disaster and the necessity to proceed to help support organizations and UN our bodies delivering help per humanitarian rules” in Afghanistan, it stated.
Attendees — together with US Particular Consultant Thomas West and Particular Envoy for Afghan Ladies, Ladies, and Human Rights Rina Amiri, in addition to Karen Decker, the chief of the US mission to Afghanistan — additionally voiced “grave concern concerning detentions, media crackdowns, and limits on non secular follow.”
The assertion didn’t determine the Taliban representatives who attended the talks, describing them solely as “senior” and as “technocratic professionals.” It didn’t elaborate on their response to the calls.
Since sweeping again to energy in August 2021, Taliban authorities have grappled with a humanitarian disaster in a poverty-stricken nation rising from many years of conflict.
They’ve banned women and girls from attending highschool and college, barred them from visiting parks, enjoyable festivals, and gymnasiums, and ordered them to cowl up in public.
Ladies have additionally been principally blocked from working for the United Nations or NGOs, with hundreds sacked from authorities jobs or being paid to remain at dwelling.
Earlier this month Taliban authorities shuttered one of many final remaining areas of labor and socialization open to girls underneath their authorities: magnificence parlors.
The American delegation in Doha “urged the Taliban to reverse insurance policies chargeable for the deteriorating human rights state of affairs in Afghanistan, notably for girls, ladies, and susceptible communities,” the State Division assertion stated.
It additionally “expressed help for the Afghan individuals’s calls for for his or her rights to be revered and for his or her voices to form the way forward for the nation.”
The US additionally referred to as for the “speedy and unconditional launch” of Americans detained in Afghanistan, the assertion stated.
On the identical time, the delegation “took observe” of the Taliban’s “persevering with dedication” to not enable Afghanistan for use as a platform for assaults on the USA and its allies, acknowledging “a lower in large-scale terrorist assaults in opposition to Afghan civilians.”
And the USA stated it acknowledged a “vital lower in cultivation” of poppies this rising season.
Taliban fighters used the plant, from which opium is extracted, to assist fund their insurgency for years — by 2020, 85% of the world’s opium was flowing out of Afghanistan, in line with the UN — however since their takeover, authorities have banned the crop.
The US delegation additionally met representatives of the Afghan central financial institution and the Ministry of Finance, with the State Division saying it “took observe” of falling inflation and rising exports and imports in 2023.
It stated it might be open to “a technical dialogue concerning financial stabilization points quickly,” in line with the assertion.
Updated at 2023-09-13 15:11:18