EU envoy defends talks with Taliban

Making concessions to Taliban authorities by excluding civil society groups from UN-hosted talks was a price worth paying for further engagement, the EU’s special envoy to Afghanistan said Tuesday.

Rights groups have strongly criticised the UN move to exclude women’s rights and other groups from the Doha meeting which ended Monday, in a compromise to allow the Taliban government’s participation.

Civil society organisations and women’s activists were given the chance to meet with officials and international envoys on Tuesday outside the official agenda though some chose to boycott the extra day of talks.

“To have the opportunity to talk with the Taliban, and they came, and to talk with these individuals, civil society, private sector, and they came... I think this was worth it”, Tomas Niklasson told AFP.

“I think it was a good discussion. We know the controversy around the event. Some civil society members have boycotted it for various reasons and I understand the reasons,” he added at the end of the Tuesday talks.

The UN-hosted talks began on Sunday and were the third such meeting to be held in Qatar in a little over a year, but the first to include the Taliban authorities who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

In the aftermath of the Taliban’s return to power, the international community has wrestled with its approach to Afghanistan’s new rulers.

The Taliban government in Kabul has not been officially recognised by any other government since it took power in 2021.

The authorities have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law, with women subjected to laws characterised by the UN as “gender apartheid”. The Taliban authorities have repeatedly said the rights of all citizens are guaranteed under Islamic law.