(MENAFN- Pajhwok Afghan News)
KABUL (Pajhwok): Western envoys have categorically told Taliban delegates that humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan will depend on respect for human rights.
Senior Taliban leaders and diplomats from several Western countries have held landmark discussions on the current situation in Afghanistan behind closed doors in Oslo.
Led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Taliban delegates met representatives from the European Union, the United States, Britain, Norway, Germany, Italy and France, as well as Afghan civil society leaders over the past three days in Oslo.
A Norwegian initiative, the talks represented the Taliban's first contact with Western diplomats since their takeover of the country in August last year.
The unfolding humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, faced with hunger and poverty, was also in focus at the meeting the Taliban hailed as an“achievement in itself”.
During face-to-face discussions, European and US envoys linked humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to improvement in human rights.
The Associated Press quoted Muttaqi as hailing the closed-door meetings.“It was a very good trip. Such trips will bring us closer to the world,” the acting foreign minister hoped.
The Taliban government would do all it could to protect the country, currently in a grave humanitarian crisis, from any sorts of problems and seek attract more international aid, he promised.
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council who also took part in the talks, called Western sanctions on Taliban a complex problem.
The curbs were leading to a severe liquidity crisis that prevented aid flows into Afghanistan, Egeland explained, asking the West and the Taliban to talk on how to stop the sanctions hurting civilians.
According to AP, Western powers want the Taliban to respect rights of women and girls and share power with minority ethnic and religious groups.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gehr Storey characterised the discussions hosted by his country as serious and genuine.
Currently in New York to brief a UN Security Council meeting on the Oslo meetings, he said the talks did not mean recognition of the government in Kabul.
Speaking to journalists, the Norwegian premier said the Taliban's visit was the first step in dealing with genuine Afghan officials to ward off a looming humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan.
“We made it clear that we want to see girls back in school in March, that too, girls above 12. We want to see humanitarian access uninterrupted,” the prime minister said.
PAN Monitoring/mud
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