The idea that a conference in Doha, Qatar, next week, organized by the UN, would consider the possibility of recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan’s rulers, has been vehemently condemned by both the US administration and parliamentarians.
“The intent and purpose of this meeting was never to discuss recognizing the Taliban, and any discussion about recognizing them at this meeting would be unacceptable to us,” said Vedant Patel, the principal deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, during a news conference on Thursday.
The United Nations was criticized by Senator Jim Risch, the leading member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in addition to rejecting the idea. “The UN has to be woken up. Any discussion of recognizing the Taliban is ludicrous, he tweeted. While millions of Afghans are in desperate need of humanitarian aid, this homicidal dictatorship continues to exclude women from the workforce and educational opportunities.
The UN needs a wake-up call. Any talk of recognition of the #Taliban is absolutely absurd. This murderous regime continues to deny women the ability to work or go to school while millions of Afghans are in dire humanitarian need. https://t.co/dOp05Gn0A9
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) April 19, 2023
While speaking to reporters in New York, a representative of the US delegation to the UN also ruled out any discussion of the Taliban’s recognition.
The responses came after UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed said the organization hoped to discover such baby steps that would “put us back on the pathway to recognition… of the Taliban” during the UN-sponsored Doha summit on May 1-2. To put it another way, there are restrictions.
When asked if the Taliban government was looking for recognition during a lecture on Monday at Princeton University, Ms. Mohammed said, “Yes. It is obvious that the Taliban desire respect. And that’s the leverage we have to influence people to adopt a more positive perspective on women and other issues.
The UN chief’s office has partially backed up Ms. Mohammed’s claim that Secretary General Antonio Guterres will host the two-day gathering of envoys from around the world in Doha, Qatar, but that the discussions won’t be about recognizing the Taliban.
UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York that the discussion’s goal, which would take place in a closed room, is to achieve greater unanimity over the problems at hand.
He declared that the main goal of the Doha summit was to “advance an approach-based pragmatism and principles to have a constructive engagement on the issue.”
