Meeting to discuss IEA recognition in next two weeks: Top UN Official

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ATLANTA (Pajhwok) :The United Nations deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed said Monday that the organization plans to arrange a conference in the coming days to discuss granting recognition to Afghanistan's Taliban, stressing the need for engagement with the fundamentalist authorities.

Mohammed told an audience at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs that the international meeting would bring envoys working on Afghanistan to the table, among others. VOA reported on Tuesday.

"What we are hoping is that we'll gather them now in another two weeks in the region, and they will have that first meeting of envoys across the board — the region and internationally — with the secretary-general for the first time," she said.

"And out of that, we hope that we'll find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition [of the Taliban], a principled recognition," Mohammed said. "Is it possible? I don't know. [But] that discussion has to happen. The Taliban clearly want recognition, and that's the leverage we have."

The top U.N. official visited Afghanistan in January and discussed with IEA leaders the sweeping curbs the fundamentalist authorities have imposed on women's freedom of work and movement since taking control of the strife-torn nation.

The restrictions have effectively blocked women and girls' access to work and education beyond 6th grade across the country. Afghan female staff have been banned from working for the U.N. and nongovernmental aid groups.

Mohammed said the Taliban maintain they have enacted several laws to deter gender-based violence and to give more inheritance rights to women, among others, besides eliminating corruption in Afghanistan.

"But I don't have any engagement that the international community will allow me to have to know whether they are implementing it or not," she said.

Mohammed said engagement with the Taliban would help to hold them accountable for their actions. "We cannot allow that they continue to get worse, which is what happens when you don't engage," she said.

She noted that the Taliban are becoming stronger because neighboring countries are engaging with them economically to ensure Afghanistan does not plunge into chaos and implode from within.

"There are trade surpluses with Afghanistan today. There's the banking system that's put in place for Afghanistan today, and we still say there are sanctions. So, we either engage and pull them to the right side, or we don't and see where it drifts. We must dine with the devil with [a] long spoon," she said.

Mohammed said the U.N. told its Afghan female staff to work from home while it negotiates with the Taliban for the removal of the ban on women. She added that female employees could work from home and earn a salary.

JAK

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