Karen Decker, the U.S. chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan, stated in a chat with reporters that the Taliban has not achieved any of their key demands during the third Doha meeting.
According to Decker, the Taliban’s three main demands included official recognition, the return of frozen assets, and the lifting of sanctions. None of these demands were met, she said.
Decker emphasized that the Afghan people desire a different Afghanistan from what the Taliban envision. She added that it is up to the Afghan people to communicate this to the Taliban.
She also noted that issues the Taliban consider internal were challenged by representatives of various countries during the Doha talks.
Meanwhile, she said that the special envoys in the third Doha meeting also stressed the need for continuation of work on UN independent assessment on Afghanistan situation.
“Envoys in their statements in review of the situation of Afghanistan, the majority upheld the independent assessment and really put women at the center of their Afghanistan strategies,” Decker said. “Envoy after envoy after envoy warned the Taliban that Afghanistan cannot be successful if it leaves half its population out.”
She said that “envoys called on Afghanistan to fulfill all the UN conventions, and at the same time, envoys called on the UN to establish a process and a guide to keep the work of the independent assessment on track.”
“I think it’s worth noting that there was a group of envoys that had very similar points and that those were the countries who share borders with Afghanistan,” she added.
