On Sunday, Afghan civil society representatives and Taliban delegates met in Norway for daylong talks, focusing on the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, led the Oslo delegate of the Taliban. Furthermore, the meeting members heard patiently to each other’s thoughts and exchanged views on the present situation in the Taliban-seized country.
A brief Taliban statement said that several Afghan personalities attended the talks with the delegation of Muttaqi but didn’t explain. In addition, the Taliban statement noted that they asserted that Afghanistan is the mutual home of all Afghans and emphasized that all Afghans and stressed that all Afghans need to collaborate for the economic, political, and security prosperity of the country.
Taliban envoys and Afghan society representatives held daylong talks, focusing on extending the deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was leading the Taliban delegate. pic.twitter.com/bOUtMaR11a
— Live News Now (@LiveNewsNow6) January 24, 2022
The meeting started three days of closed-door talks the Scandinavian nation arranged among the governing Islamic group, Afghans from several fields within civil society, and Western government officials. In August, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and since then, their delegates to Pakistan, China, Turkmenistan, Qatar, Iran, and Russia for bilateral as well international meetings.
Frozen Assets of Afghan Central Banks
Anniken Huitfeldt, the Foreign Minister of Norwegian, emphasized that the visit was not recognition or legalization of the Taliban government. However, leaders of both sides must converse with those who actually govern the nation today. Western countries, including the United States, collectively froze approximately $10 billion assets in the Afghan central banks. After the Taliban seizure, most of them were held in the American Federal Reserve.
In the talks with European and American diplomats in Oslo, Muttaqi expected to renew the demands of his government for the release of the Afghan assets as the country faced an economic collapse and an extraordinary surge in humanitarian crisis. Moreover, the United States special ambassador for Afghanistan, Thomas West, was in the Norwegian capital for the dialogs with the delegation of the Taliban.
Source: Web
Special envoy for Afghan girls, women & human rights, Rina Amiri, officials from the American Department of the Treasury, and the United States Agency for International Development accompanied West. In a series of tweets, West welcomed the recent initiative on Sunday to bring the Taliban and Afghan civil society for talks, saying civil society leaders are the strength of prosperous and healthy communities and economies.
The American envoy tweeted that as the U.S. seeks to address the humanitarian crisis together with partners, allies, and relief organizations, they will continue clear-eyed diplomacy with the Taliban leaders about their concerns and steadfast interest in a stable, inclusive, and rights-respecting Afghanistan. Additionally, the State Department stated that the delegation of West would discuss the formation of a representative possible system, economic crisis and the urgent humanitarian, economic crises, counterterrorism & security concerns, and education for girls and women.
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