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The Taliban held a meeting with EU representatives after a two-day meeting with the United States to seek international recognition.
The senior Taliban representatives stated that they had had “active” discussions with the US delegation in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and had begun meetings with EU representatives.
This is the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15, as the U.S. military began to withdraw from Afghanistan and the Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani’s government collapsed. The US military withdrew from Afghanistan on August 30, ending its 20-year military occupation.
Al Jazeera reporter Natasha Gonem from Doha said that the Americans “did not provide any details at the end of the talks”, but the Afghan delegation stated that the two-day talks were “positive”.
“They hope this will pave the way for recognition by the Afghan government-not only the United States, but also the international community,” Gonem said.
According to her, an Afghan delegation led by Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, also came to Doha to seek any internationally recognized financial assistance.
“What concessions were made to obtain financial aid, and what deals might be concluded… We don’t know yet,” Ghoneim said.
She added that the Afghan delegation asked the United States to end economic sanctions and “unfreeze” assets worth about 10 billion U.S. dollars. The Taliban announced the establishment of an all-male cabinet last month, but after cutting off ties with international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, it has been struggling to manage the liquidity crisis.
The organization stated that in the looming economic and humanitarian crisis, it needs to pay salaries to government employees and provide services to Afghans.
The United States has not yet commented on the meeting. However, a spokesperson for the US State Department said on Friday night that the talks were not intended to recognize the Taliban or make the Taliban the leader of Afghanistan, but to continue the pragmatic talks on US national interests.
He said that the top priority is to allow Afghans, U.S. citizens and other foreign nationals to continue to leave Afghanistan safely, adding that another goal is to urge the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans, including women and girls, and form a broadly inclusive Sexual government. support.
Although the Taliban has expressed flexibility in its withdrawal, it has stated that it will not cooperate with the United States to contain armed groups in Afghanistan-this is an issue of interest to Washington.
The 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement negotiated by the administration of former President Donald Trump requires the Taliban to sever ties with “terrorist organizations” and guarantee that Afghanistan will not again harbor “terrorists” who can attack Washington and its allies.
The Afghan group demanded that its senior leaders be removed from the “terror list”, accusing the United States of violating the Doha Agreement that paved the way for the United States to withdraw.
Since the Taliban came to power, the Islamic State ISKP (ISIS-K) in Khorasan Province, an affiliate of ISIL, has intensified its attacks in the country, especially against the Shiite Hazara community.
ISKP has claim A suicide attack on a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers killed dozens of people.
The Taliban fighting ISKP ruled out the possibility of cooperating with the United States to counter its threat. The organization also warned Washington not to carry out any so-called “out-of-the-horizon” attacks on Afghan territory from outside Afghanistan.
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