UN chief to host Afghanistan meeting next month in Doha

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will host a meeting for envoys to Afghanistan next month to try to find a “durable way forward” for the war-torn country, his spokesman said on Wednesday.

“The purpose of this kind of small group meeting is for us to reinvigorate the international engagement around the common objectives for a durable way forward on the situation in Afghanistan,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

The two-day meeting will take place in Doha, Qatar, starting on May 1.

He noted that the UN chief “continues to believe that it's an urgent priority to advance an approach based on pragmatism and principles, combined with strategic patience, and to identify parameters for creative, flexible, principled and constructive engagement”.

Mr Dujarric also explained comments made on Monday by Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed about the planned Doha meeting.

Ms Mohammed had said the gathering was to discuss the “baby steps” that could put the Taliban back on the pathway to recognition by the international community, with conditions attached.

“There are some who believe this can never happen. There are others that say, well, it has to happen,” Ms Mohammed said in a talk at Princeton University.

“The Taliban clearly want recognition … and that's the leverage we have.”

He stressed that Ms Mohammed “was not in any way implying that anyone else but member states have the authority for recognition” of Afghanistan's Taliban government.

In December, the 193-member UN General Assembly approved postponing a decision by its credentialing committee to recognise the Taliban by allowing them to send a UN ambassador to New York.

Meanwhile, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has launched an assessment of its operations following a Taliban ban on Afghan women working for the world body.