Amidst criticisms about the UN deputy chief’s remarks regarding the possibility to discuss Taliban recognition in the upcoming meeting about Afghanistan in Doha, a US State Department spokesman on Thursday, April 20, said that “the meeting was never to discuss recognition of the Taliban.”
“Any discussion at this meeting about recognition would be unacceptable to us. But I will let our mission in New York speak more about this,” said Vedant Patel, the US State Department’s deputy spokesman, who briefed reporters on Thursday.
Recent remarks by United Nations deputy chief Amina Mohammed on Taliban recognition has faced harsh criticism from women in Afghanistan who say the international organization and the world should see what is happening in the country, especially for women.
Mohammed, in a conversation with Princeton University, proposed a discussion be held on recognizing the Taliban in an upcoming meeting of special envoys for Afghanistan and UN officials in Doha in the coming two weeks.
Mohammed meanwhile said: “We have amazing envoys that work on Afghanistan and we have Afghan women too, and what we are hoping is that we will gather them now in another two weeks in the region and they will have that first meeting of envoys across the board, the region and internationally with the secretary general for the first time.”
“And out of that, we hope that we would find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition. Is it possible? I don’t know,” she said.
Responding to the comments, a UN spokesperson said on Thursday that the meeting will not focus on the possible international recognition of the Taliban administration, a
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to host a closed-door gathering in Doha on May 1-2 of special envoys on Afghanistan from various countries. His deputy, Amina Mohammed, suggested on Monday that the gathering “could find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition.”
“The Doha conference on the 1st and 2nd of May is not focusing on recognition and we don’t want there to be any confusion about that,” said UN’s deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq.
The remarks by Mohammed have faced harsh criticism from women in Afghanistan who said on Wednesday that the international organization and the world should see what is happening in the country, especially for women.
