The Taliban-run foreign ministry said UNAMA has informed it that the United Nations deputy chief Rosemary DiCarlo will visit Kabul later this month, as progress under the UN-led Doha engagement process remains uneven.
In a statement, the ministry said Georgette Gagnon, acting head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), discussed the Doha process during a meeting with Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul.
The talks focused on developments and upcoming meetings of two Doha working groups on counter-narcotics and private sector support, as well as related issues, the statement said.
According to the ministry, Muttaqi said the Taliban had made what he called “satisfactory progress” within the working groups, but said other parties had failed to deliver results on issues such as alternative livelihoods and Afghanistan’s banking problems.
He said “concrete and serious steps” were needed by other stakeholders to ensure progress in additional areas, the statement added.
The ministry said Gagnon told the meeting that Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, is expected to visit Afghanistan before the end of the month and called for cooperation ahead of the trip.
She also described the outcomes of previous working group meetings as positive and said more attention would be given to the process, according to the statement.
UNAMA has not commented publicly on the meeting.
The Doha process, launched by the United Nations after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, is aimed at coordinating international engagement with Afghanistan. The first two rounds were held without Taliban participation and focused on human rights, women’s rights and humanitarian assistance, but produced no concrete breakthroughs.
The Taliban attended the third round for the first time, with talks centred on economic issues, private sector support, banking and counter-narcotics, while human rights and women’s participation received less emphasis.
Several working groups were formed as part of the process, but they have yet to produce tangible outcomes.
Separately, Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said Moscow and Washington currently have no direct contact on Afghanistan.
“Russia and the United States have had no contact on Afghanistan and no negotiations have taken place,” Kabulov was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency.
Kabulov added that during the Doha meeting, he and China’s representative told the UN secretary-general they could not work “as part of one team” with countries that have frozen Afghanistan’s assets and refused to return them.
