OIC-CFM: Over 24 FMs, P5 envoys confirm participation

Qureshi says upcoming meeting on Afghanistan will have three sessions

ISLAMABAD:

More than two-dozen countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have confirmed their participation at the foreign ministerial level in the upcoming extraordinary session on the current Afghan situation, officials told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

The official also said that senior diplomats from the permanent members of the UN Security Council, including the US, will also join the crucial meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Islamabad on December 19.

The CFM session is going to be the biggest international gathering yet on Afghanistan since the Taliban took over Kabul in August as not just the 57 members of the OIC are set to attend the meeting but also representatives of P5, Germany, Japan and international financial institutions have been invited.

The meeting’s agenda is to avert the imminent humanitarian crises and economic collapse of Afghanistan, which, according to the UN and other international aid agencies, is on the brink of humanitarian catastrophe, as the country is heavily dependent on foreign assistance.

Ahead of the all-important meeting, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday told media that it was a race against time, warning that temptation to abandon Afghanistan would have dangerous consequences.

Quoting the UN assessment, Qureshi said nearly 23 million Afghans are facing acute food shortage. He said common Afghans have a choice either to die or migrate. “This is the kind of scenario we want to avoid,” Qureshi said.

In its internal assessment, Pakistan fears that the international community, particularly the West may abandon Afghanistan, triggering another cycle of violence and instability.

Qureshi warned that such a scenario would spark a new wave of Afghan refugees that would not only pose serious problems to the neighbouring countries but also the West.

Read Pakistan not interested in joining camps: FM Qureshi

The foreign minister particularly voiced concerns over the Afghan Taliban government’s lack of access to the assets of the Afghan Central Bank. The absence of banking channels was also compounding the problems for the Afghans, he said.

The US has frozen $9.5 billion foreign assets of Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of Kabul. Pakistan, Russia, China, Qatar and some other countries were in favour of unfreezing the Afghan assets but Washington has not yet given any indication that it would do so.

Qureshi said that the people of Afghanistan should not be punished if the world doesn’t like or approve a certain political dispensation. Qureshi was of the view that the renewed instability in Afghanistan would only allow terrorist groups to re-emerge and pose threat to the region and beyond.

Quoting a report of the UNDP, the foreign minister said by the end of 2022, 97% of Afghans would slip below the poverty line. “This situation would put Afghanistan exactly at a place the world wanted to avoid in the first place,” he said.

Meanwhile, Qureshi said the OIC’s extraordinary meeting will have three sessions. The opening and closing sessions would be open, while the middle session would be behind closed doors.

Pakistan is hoping that the OIC meeting would help develop international consensus and the world would not merely make pledges but take practical steps for the people of Afghanistan.