If there is a single place on Earth that is the opposite of everything the Taliban aspires to create in Afghanistan, it might be Norway. Yet, last week, a large and very senior Taliban delegation found itself there, in Oslo, wrapping up a set of meetings it described as “an achievement”. For the first time, the Taliban “shared the stage with the world”, said Amir Khan Muttaqi, Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister.
The meetings bore all the hallmarks of high-level talks – the Taliban were flown in on a private jet, and met with envoys from the US, France, the UK, Germany, Norway and the EU. But widespread anger among the Norwegian public, as well as human rights organisations and Afghan diaspora groups, at the Taliban being afforded such dignity and respect meant the event could be billed as nothing more than an informal summit. Every western country participating has been at pains to emphasise that nothing about the Norway talks constituted official recognition of the Taliban government.
In many ways, these are superficial concerns. In organising and hosting the meetings, the Norwegian government is pursuing an entirely pragmatic agenda. As one former Norwegian diplomat points out, Norway does not recognise governments. It recognises countries, and it has recognised Afghanistan for decades. A failure to talk to Afghanistan’s new government would be a failure to acknowledge reality.
Nonetheless, governments went into the Norway summit having to promise their domestic constituencies and human rights groups that they would approach the Taliban with a set of demands – “tangible demands”, as Norway’s State Secretary, Henrik Thune, called them. They include respect for human rights, universal access to education and health care, the right to employment, free movement and a mechanism for distributing aid directly to Afghan civilians.
A failure to talk to Afghanistan’s new government would be a failure to acknowledge reality
A fairer criticism of the summit – or more accurately, perhaps, a criticism of its opponents – is that this public premise of negotiating over demands is deeply flawed, logically as well as morally. The Taliban did not need to fly to Norway to understand the West’s demands. They have been clear for months, and the Taliban has repeatedly failed to meet them. It has denied girls the right to education, refused to include women in government, shut ethnic and religious minorities out of government in anything but a tokenistic sense, suppressed Afghanistan’s media and tolerated its supporters carrying out a deadly vigilante campaign against its ideological opponents. Indeed, all of this, and the subsequent inability for most people in the world to stomach being in the same room as the Taliban, is the reason a summit such as the one in Oslo hasn’t happened sooner.
It is also the reason the US and European countries, which together hold nearly $10 billion of Afghan government assets in their banks, have refused to release those funds. In the meantime, Afghanistan is facing the most acute humanitarian crisis in its history. Nine in 10 Afghans face starvation, barely $100 of cash per person exists in the economy and the worst drought the country has had in more than three decades is setting in. The incentives for the Taliban to reform could not be greater.
The western argument – made most forcefully by the US – is that the Afghan state reserves make for good leverage, and the Taliban argument is that none of the reforms are possible without money. Neither of these positions wash; most of the reforms would not cost any money, and the money-as-leverage strategy clearly does not work. And the continued posturing driving both positions in full knowledge of the failure of their logic is morally repugnant.
So was the point of the summit to repeat a set of demands the Taliban will not meet, starving hundreds of thousands of Afghans in the process?
Unsurprisingly, no tangible results have come out of the meetings in Norway yet. And they are unlikely to emerge any time soon. That is because the reality – the real mess – of Afghanistan that the organisers of the meeting want to acknowledge, and sort out, requires something deeper than merely talking at the Taliban. It requires getting to know the Taliban. Bringing the Taliban to the table, engaging in a certain amount of puffery, and watching the group’s delighted swagger reveals something: the extent to which some elements of the Taliban want to “share the stage”, as Mr Muttaqi put it.
It also provides opportunities to form new, more effective strategies to exploit these elements and achieve actual results. It is clear, for instance, that money is not the reason the Taliban cannot have girls in school or include minorities in its administration. It already musters the resources to educate boys and appoint members of its own group. The real reason for its obstinacy is disagreement within its ranks – battles between its own pragmatists and hardliners. Getting to know the Taliban opens the door to finding ways to support the former over the latter, particularly in these early days, before it’s too late and the hardliners cement their power.
Those are longer-term benefits. There is another, more immediate potential payoff from getting to know the Taliban government better. The international community could reach an agreement with the Taliban to channel funds directly to Afghans, as the Norwegian government wants, in a way that is systematic, monitored and minimises the risk of misuse. With a measure of creativity, such a mechanism is possible to devise – more complicated things have been tried in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. This would allow the West to retain some control over the process, but also move the entire dynamic between it and Afghanistan away from a zero-sum approach.
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All of this is a risky investment of time, effort and money. The Taliban could rest on its Norwegian “achievement”, give in to its most hard-line impulses and find ways to siphon off whatever aid it can, as many other terrorist groups in the region before it have done. But no risk is being taken that hasn’t been taken before, and no price would be paid that isn’t already being paid the longer the situation in Afghanistan drags on without resolution. And investments are more likely to succeed the more information investors have.
Whatever the public debate surrounding the Taliban’s visit to Norway, whatever the optics and whatever the participants claim, it is likely that the point of the meeting was not to make demands. It was to get to know who the Taliban are. In that sense, it was something of a coming-out party for the Taliban after all.
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Dirham Stretcher tips for having a baby in the UAE
Selma Abdelhamid, the group's moderator, offers her guide to guide the cost of having a young family:
• Buy second hand stuff
They grow so fast. Don't get a second hand car seat though, unless you 100 per cent know it's not expired and hasn't been in an accident.
• Get a health card and vaccinate your child for free at government health centres
Ms Ma says she discovered this after spending thousands on vaccinations at private clinics.
• Join mum and baby coffee mornings provided by clinics, babysitting companies or nurseries.
Before joining baby classes ask for a free trial session. This way you will know if it's for you or not. You'll be surprised how great some classes are and how bad others are.
• Once baby is ready for solids, cook at home
Take the food with you in reusable pouches or jars. You'll save a fortune and you'll know exactly what you're feeding your child.
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Important questions to consider
1. Where on the plane does my pet travel?
There are different types of travel available for pets:
- Manifest cargo
- Excess luggage in the hold
- Excess luggage in the cabin
Each option is safe. The feasibility of each option is based on the size and breed of your pet, the airline they are traveling on and country they are travelling to.
2. What is the difference between my pet traveling as manifest cargo or as excess luggage?
If traveling as manifest cargo, your pet is traveling in the front hold of the plane and can travel with or without you being on the same plane. The cost of your pets travel is based on volumetric weight, in other words, the size of their travel crate.
If traveling as excess luggage, your pet will be in the rear hold of the plane and must be traveling under the ticket of a human passenger. The cost of your pets travel is based on the actual (combined) weight of your pet in their crate.
3. What happens when my pet arrives in the country they are traveling to?
As soon as the flight arrives, your pet will be taken from the plane straight to the airport terminal.
If your pet is traveling as excess luggage, they will taken to the oversized luggage area in the arrival hall. Once you clear passport control, you will be able to collect them at the same time as your normal luggage. As you exit the airport via the ‘something to declare’ customs channel you will be asked to present your pets travel paperwork to the customs official and / or the vet on duty.
If your pet is traveling as manifest cargo, they will be taken to the Animal Reception Centre. There, their documentation will be reviewed by the staff of the ARC to ensure all is in order. At the same time, relevant customs formalities will be completed by staff based at the arriving airport.
4. How long does the travel paperwork and other travel preparations take?
This depends entirely on the location that your pet is traveling to. Your pet relocation compnay will provide you with an accurate timeline of how long the relevant preparations will take and at what point in the process the various steps must be taken.
In some cases they can get your pet ‘travel ready’ in a few days. In others it can be up to six months or more.
5. What vaccinations does my pet need to travel?
Regardless of where your pet is traveling, they will need certain vaccinations. The exact vaccinations they need are entirely dependent on the location they are traveling to. The one vaccination that is mandatory for every country your pet may travel to is a rabies vaccination.
Other vaccinations may also be necessary. These will be advised to you as relevant. In every situation, it is essential to keep your vaccinations current and to not miss a due date, even by one day. To do so could severely hinder your pets travel plans.
Source: Pawsome Pets UAE
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THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
A cheaper choice
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Friday's schedule in Madrid
Men's quarter-finals
Novak Djokivic (1) v Marin Cilic (9) from 2pm UAE time
Roger Federer (4) v Dominic Thiem (5) from 7pm
Stefanos Tsitsipas (8) v Alexander Zverev (3) from 9.30pm
Stan Wawrinka v Rafael Nadal (2) from 11.30pm
Women's semi-finals
Belinda Bencic v Simona Halep (3) from 4.30pm
Sloane Stephens (8) v Kiki Bertens (7) from 10pm
'The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window'
Director:Michael Lehmann
Stars:Kristen Bell
Rating: 1/5
Honeymoonish
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Results
2pm: Al Sahel Contracting Company – Maiden (PA) Dh50,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: AF Mutakafel, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
2.30pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: El Baareq, Antonio Fresu, Rashed Bouresly
3pm: Shadwell – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
3.30pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Alkaraama, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
4pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Lady Snazz, Saif Al Balushi, Bhupat Seemar
4.30pm: Hive – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
5pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – (TB) Handicap Dh64,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Ireland v Denmark: The last two years
Denmark 1-1 Ireland
7/06/19, Euro 2020 qualifier
Denmark 0-0 Ireland
19/11/2018, Nations League
Ireland 0-0 Denmark
13/10/2018, Nations League
Ireland 1 Denmark 5
14/11/2017, World Cup qualifier
Denmark 0-0 Ireland
11/11/2017, World Cup qualifier
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
