ISLAMABAD-- Pakistan is rallying Muslim countries to assist Afghanistan fend off a humanitarian and financial catastrophe while also encouraging the neighboring nation's new Taliban rulers to soften their image abroad.Numerous foreign ministers from the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation are meeting in Islamabad on Sunday to explore ways to help Afghanistan while browsing the challenging political realities of its Taliban-run federal government, Pakistan's top diplomat stated Friday.
The new Taliban administration in Kabul has actually been sanctioned by the international community, reeling from the collapse of the Afghan military and the Western-backed federal government in the face of the insurgents' takeover in mid-August.The OIC meeting is an engagement that does not make up a main acknowledgment of the Taliban regime, stated Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.He said the message to the event on Sunday is: "Please do not abandon Afghanistan. Please engage. We are promoting individuals of Afghanistan. We're not mentioning a particular group. We are talking about the people of Afghanistan."
Qureshi said major powers-- including the United States, Russia, China and the European Union-- will send their special agents on Afghanistan to the one-day top. Afghanistan's Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi will also attend the conference.Afghanistan is facing a looming financial disaster and humanitarian disaster in the consequences of the Taliban takeover. Billions of dollars' worth of the nation's possessions abroad, mainly in the U.S., have been frozen and international financing to the country has actually stopped.
The world is also waiting before extending any official recognition to the new rulers in Kabul, wary the Taliban might impose a likewise extreme regime as when they were in power 20 years ago-- in spite of their assurances to the contrary.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Muttaqi said that Afghanistan's new rulers were dedicated to the education of girls and women in the labor force.
Yet 4 months into Taliban rule, girls are not enabled to attend high school in a lot of provinces and though women have returned to their jobs in much of the health care sector, lots of female civil servants have been disallowed from coming to work.Nevertheless, security has enhanced under the Taliban, with aid organizations able to travel to a lot of parts of Afghanistan, including areas that for years were off-limits throughout the war, stated a senior humanitarian official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the fact that the official was not authorized to speak openly on the matter.
The World Health Organization and U.N. companies have warned of the humanitarian crisis dealing with Afghanistan and its 38 million people. Healthcare facilities are desperately except medicines, as much as 95 percent of all households deal with food scarcities, the poverty line is skyrocketing towards 90 percent and the afghani, the national currency, is in complimentary fall.
Pakistan has actually been at the leading edge in pushing for world engagement in Afghanistan. Qureshi said Friday he has actually warned in talks with lots of foreign ministers-- consisting of with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington-- that a total collapse in Afghanistan will hurt efforts to eliminate terrorism and activate an enormous exodus from the country.Refugees will end up being financial migrants, he added, implying they would not wish to remain in surrounding countries of Pakistan and Iran, however will try to reach Europe and North America.
Qureshi also warned that if Afghans are left without assistance, militant groups such as al-Qaeda and the local Islamic State affiliate will flourish and regroup amid the turmoil.The OIC has take advantage of since of its nature as an Islamic organization and Qureshi expressed hope the top will also be an opportunity for the world's Muslim countries to press upon the Taliban the imperative of permitting girls to attend school at all levels and for women to go back to their jobs completely.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson center, said OIC nations could do more, recommending they resolve their religious scholars and have them communicate directly with the Taliban.
In the meantime, it would be hard for the West to engage with the Taliban, Kugelman stated, adding that such an interaction would be identical to admitting defeat in the 20-year war.For the Taliban, it would be the "last satisfaction of having the ability to engage ... from the perspective of victor," he stated.
" The Taliban defeated the West ... their powerful militaries and caused them to suffer through a disorderly and embarrassing last withdrawal," he stated. "For the West to turn around and bury the hatchet with the Taliban, this would amount to a legitimization of its defeat."
