Qatar’s exclusive prime minister and Taliban leader hold secret Afghanistan talks -source

By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Qatari prime minister held secret talks with the Taliban’s supreme leader this month on resolving tensions with the international community, a source briefed on the meeting said, signaling a new resolve among Afghan leaders to discuss ways to end their isolation.

The May 12 meeting in Kandahar city, southern Afghanistan, between Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Haibatullah Akhunzada is the first the reclusive Taliban leader has had with a foreign leader.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has been briefed on the talks and is “coordinating all issues discussed” by the couple, including pursuing dialogue with the Taliban, the source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said other issues raised by Sheikh Mohammed with Haibatullah included the need to end the Taliban ban on girls’ education and the employment of women.

The meeting represents a diplomatic success for Qatar, which has criticized Taliban restrictions on women while using longstanding ties to the Islamist movement to push for deeper engagement with Kabul by the international community.

The United States has called on the Taliban to end bans on girls’ education and women’s work, including for UN agencies and humanitarian groups, restore their freedom of movement and bring Afghans into government outside the ranks of the Taliban.

The source’s comments suggest Washington has backed elevating what have been unproductive lower-level talks in hopes of a breakthrough that could end the world’s only such bans and ease serious humanitarian crises. and financial resources that have left tens of millions of hungry and jobless Afghans. .

The White House declined to comment on the talks. The State Department and the Qatar Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

The Taliban did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT PROHIBITIONS

Restrictions on women’s schooling and work have hampered humanitarian aid and are the main reasons why no country has recognized the Taliban regime since they took power in August 2021, after the collapse of the Western-backed government as the last US-led international troops departed after two decades of war.

The Taliban’s treatment of women and girls could constitute a crime against humanity, according to a UN report presented in March to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Taliban claim to respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and Afghan customs.

Haibatullah, a hardline Islamist, proved unwilling to compromise on his edicts.

His meeting with Sheikh Mohammed, however, suggests he is open to exploring avenues to end Afghanistan’s isolation and bolster relief programs as the country sinks deeper into hunger and poverty.

“It was a very positive encounter,” the source said. Haibatullah was “very interested” in pursuing a dialogue with the international community.

But eventual recognition by other countries of the Taliban administration, whose top officials remain under U.S. and international sanctions, is far from certain given their treatment of women and their poor record on human rights.

Sheikh Mohammed discussed with Haibatullah the need to lift bans on women’s education and employment, including the ban on working for UN agencies and other humanitarian groups, the source said.

The Taliban administration has since January promised written guidelines allowing aid groups to operate with female staff.

In March 2022, the Taliban banned girls from high schools and extended the ban to universities in December.

They say they will reopen secondary schools to girls when the “conditions” are met, including the development of an Islamic curriculum.

DEALING WITH THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

Sheikh Mohammed and Haibatullah also discussed efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the source said.

The United Nations says nearly three quarters of Afghanistan’s 40 million people need help and has warned that funding is drying up.

Sheikh Mohammed, the source said, discussed with Haibatullah the Taliban’s “continued efforts on the ground” against terrorism, an apparent reference to Kabul’s drive to crush an Islamic State affiliate.

The main ideological enemy of the Taliban is mainly based in eastern Afghanistan, but has targeted minorities and embassies in Kabul.

The United States and its allies claim that the Taliban are harboring members of Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban. The Afghan Taliban deny it.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Qatar’s foreign minister, met publicly in Kandahar with Mullah Hassan Akhund, the Taliban prime minister, the same day he met the supreme leader. He was accompanied by Qatar’s intelligence chief.

Neither side, however, revealed talks with Haibatullah.

He hardly ever leaves Kandahar but has been the Taliban’s supreme religious, political and military leader since 2016, guiding the movement to victory over the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Qatar allowed the militants to open a political office in Doha in 2013 and facilitated their talks with Washington that led to the 2020 deal for a withdrawal of the US-led international force they fought for. 20 years.

While the small Gulf monarchy has no official diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, its embassy in Kabul is open and represents American interests there.

Qatar has long lobbied the international community to agree on a “road map” of steps for the Taliban to be recognized, arguing that Afghanistan’s isolation could worsen regional security.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; additional reporting by Kabul Newsroom; Editing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)

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