Second Doha Meeting on Afghanistan Ends in Qatar

The second Doha meeting on Afghanistan ended with a press briefing of the UN Secretary-General on Monday.

In the press conference, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the Islamic Emirate did not participate because they did not want the UN to talk with representatives of Afghanistan’s civil society and demanded treatment that would be similar to recognition.

“In fact, I received a letter with a set of conditions to be present in this meeting that were not acceptable. These conditions first of all denied us to talk to other representative of the Afghan society and demanded a treatment that would to a large extent be similar to recognition,” said Antonio Guterres.

The UN chief asked for an inclusive government that represents all ethnicities in the country.

“We want a Afghanistan in peace, peace with itself and in peace with its neighbors, able to assume the commitments and the international obligations of a sovereign state, and at the same time, doing so in relation to the international community, the other countries, its neighbors, and in relation to the rights of its own population …

We want to see an Afghanistan whose government includes Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara, Pashtun and all ethnic groups,” said the UN chief.

The UNSG has also called for revoking the decrees that ban women and girls from going to secondary and tertiary schools and universities.

“The respect of human rights and in particular the rights of women and girls. We can see that this is essential to revoke the decisions that do not allow girls to be in secondary and tertiary schools,” the secretary-general said.

In the meantime, the UNSC is expected to hold a meeting on Afghanistan on February 26.

The Chargé d’Affaires of the Afghanistan Permanent Mission to the UN, Naseer Ahmad Faiq told TOLOnews that the upcoming meeting will be about the UNSC resolution 2721 regarding Afghanistan.

The second Doha meeting on Afghanistan was aimed at implementing the recommendations of UN special coordinator’s independent assessment to reintegrate Afghanistan into the international system and to appoint a new UN envoy for Afghanistan.