Taliban to Attend UN Talks in Qatar

Afghan Taliban authorities will be in Doha, Qatar, beginning June 30 for a series of talks on Afghanistan with UN officials and envoys from 25 other countries. This is the third round of meetings of this type to be held in the Qatari capital and the first in which Taliban emissaries are also participating.

The Taliban have been in power in Afghanistan since August 2021, when US troops withdrew after 20 years of war, and have never been recognized internationally. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid explained that “he will represent Afghanistan and express his position.” The participation, after declining invitations to previous meetings, represents an important diplomatic step for Kabul following a process launched in 2023 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to begin a dialogue process with the Taliban.

Human rights groups criticized the fact that women did not participate in the series of meetings: “Excluding them risks legitimizing Taliban abuses and irreparably damaging the credibility of the United Nations as a defender of women’s rights,” they said, as Human Rights Watch director Tirana Hassan told Italy’s ANSA news agency.

Since returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have banned women from universities, subjected them to numerous restrictions in civilian life, and still claim to respect their rights under their interpretation of Islamic law.