Afghan economic hopes threatened by Taliban – UN

April 20, 2023

By Kelly Ng

BBC News, Singapore
18 April 2023

Weak signs of recovery in Afghanistan’s economy are at risk of being undone by Taliban restrictions on women working for NGOs, the UN says.

Donations to the UN are under threat of falling sharply because of the ban on Afghan women working for it, the United Nations Development Programme said.

The number of families living in poverty had nearly doubled in two years, its report found.

The Taliban said politics should not be linked with humanitarian aid decisions.

Afghanistan was pushed into economic collapse when the Taliban took over in 2021, and foreign funds that were being given to the previous regime were frozen.

Already, 34 million people – 90% of the population – are living below the poverty line. Two in three Afghans don’t know when they will get their next meal.

The UNDP report noted signs of hope brought about by inflows of foreign aid through different UN agencies – coupled with improved security conditions, a reported reduction in corruption and better tax collection by the Taliban government.

But it stressed: “The economy cannot be reignited if women cannot work, while future economic growth is constrained by under-investment in girls’ and women’s education.”

Last year, the Taliban banned Afghan women from working for non-governmental organisations. Girls were also barred from secondary school and women from university.

When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in August 2021, billions of dollars in Afghan assets held abroad were frozen as the international community waited for the Taliban to honour promises on security, governance and human rights – including allowing all girls to be educated.

The United Nations and other non-governmental organisations have since played a crucial role in saving Afghans from going hungry.

But the UN said 94% of 127 national organisations it had surveyed had fully or partially ceased operations after the ban on women employees was imposed in December.

About 150 NGOs and aid agencies have suspended all or part of their work.

A senior Taliban finance ministry official told the BBC’s Yogita Limaye in Kabul that the rules imposed on women were “internal matters” for the country and that their government was working to improve the economic situation.

“All the humanitarian aid and donations on the ground, those should not be related to these issues only,” said Mairaj Mohammad Mairaj, the ministry’s director for general revenue.

“It is our duty as men, in the Islamic view, to take care of our women sitting in their homes.”

Mr Mairaj said there had been “a lot of corruption and misuse of power” in the previous government.

“We have stopped ill-practices like bureaucracy, corruption from our departments – this was the reason we have a very well managed structure of revenue collection.

“We need not only aid – we need trade,” he said. “We need the international community to come and work with us.”s

Currently, more than a million children, male and female, have been forced to leave school to provide for their families.

Said Ali Akbar and his elder brother Ali Sena are among them. They hammer and weld away for nine hours each day in Kabul to earn just 150 Afghanis – less than $2.

“I really like school. I miss it. This is very hard work, but I have got used to it now,” Said Ali, who is 11, told the BBC. He dropped out of sixth grade last year.

Their father lost his job when the economy collapsed and has now gone to Iran to find work. Their mother, Lila, begs on the streets.

“I feel awful that my young children are working. This is their time to study and be something. But life is hard for us. I am struggling to find work, and they have to provide for the family,” Lila told the BBC.

Some 84% of Afghanistan’s 5.1 million households are having to borrow to pay for food, the UNDP report says.

Earlier signs of recovery, such as a rise in exports, an expected increase in fiscal revenue, and a reduction in inflation – have been fuelled by international aid amounting to $3.7bn in 2022, according to the UNDP.

UNDP simulations now suggest that if aid were to drop by 30%, gross domestic product (GDP) could contract by 0.4% in 2023 and the inflation rate might spike to about 10% in 2024.

By that time, per capita incomes could decline to a projected $306, compared with $512 in 2020.

Afghan economic hopes threatened by Taliban – UN
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IOM: Two-Thirds of Afghanistan will Need Urgent Aid In 2023

April 20, 2023
Asma Saayin 
Tolo News
19 April 2023

The UN previously reported that 28 million people in Afghanistan need relief, of whom six million are at risk of famine.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a report that two-thirds of Afghanistan’s population will require urgent humanitarian assistance in 2023.

IOM seeks to mobilize US$ 450 million to address the humanitarian and recovery needs of over 7.3 million people in Afghanistan.

“Through this appeal, IOM seeks to mobilize US$ 450 million to address the humanitarian and recovery needs of over 7.3 million people in Afghanistan, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), cross-border returnees, and host communities,” IOM’s report reads.

Meanwhile, several Afghan citizens who are facing economic challenges asked the humanitarian organizations to increase the humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

“We ask that employment opportunities be provided so that people have access to food forever,” said Ghulam Ali, the sole breadwinner of a family of 12 members.

“Humanitarian aid that was provided by relief organizations in Afghanistan did not have any economic effectiveness,” said Abdul Nasir Reshtia, an economist.

The Ministry of Economy emphasized need for the continuation of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan currently requires both humanitarian aid and development and exploration aid, and assistance should be provided in the areas of agriculture, the launch of macro-economic projects, and energy,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, deputy of the Ministry of Economy.

The UN previously reported that 28 million people in Afghanistan need relief, of whom six million are at risk of famine.

IOM: Two-Thirds of Afghanistan will Need Urgent Aid In 2023
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UN Chief to Host Meeting on Afghanistan

April 20, 2023
Mohammad Farshad Daryosh
TOLOnews’ Reporter
19m April 2023

This comes as the UN warned earlier that it would be forced to pull out of Afghanistan if its female workers were not allowed to work.

UN Dep. Secretary-General Amina Mohammed speaking at an academic event in the US said the UN plans to arrange a conference with various envoys to discuss granting recognition to the Islamic Emirate.

“And out of that, we hope that we’ll find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition [of the Taliban], a principled recognition,” Mohammed said.

“Is it possible? I don’t know. [But] that discussion has to happen. The Taliban clearly want recognition, and that’s the leverage we have,” said the deputy secretary general.

Mohammed said that the engagement with the acting government would help to hold them accountable for their actions.

“We cannot allow that they continue to get worse, which is what happens when you don’t engage,” she said.

This comes as the former US special envoy for Afghanistan’s reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, also commented regarding the meeting and proposed “four measures”:

  •  Full implementation of the Doha Agreement should be embraced as the common goal.
  •  A roadmap for implementation, considering the current conditions in Afghanistan, is needed
  • To develop the road map, the Secretary-General and the Envoys should have a session with the Taliban during their deliberations.
  • As a follow-up to the meeting, the Secretary-General should appoint a personal Envoy to work with Afghans and the relevant internationals in developing and implementing the roadmap.

According to Khalilzad, there has been unanimity among “Taliban leaders in support of the agreement; the UNSC unanimously endorsed the agreement as a significant step (Resolution 2513).”

Khalilzad said that the majority of former Afghan govt figures also “embrace the agreement as the best framework for dealing with Afghanistan’s challenges.”

“Possibly the UN will stay in Afghanistan and this doesn’t mean recognition of the interim government. The meeting is in Doha because the ambassador of some of the countries for Afghanistan are based in Doha,” said Toreq Farhadi, political analyst.

The Islamic Emirate also welcomed the convening of the meeting by the UN, saying that they hope a reasonable path will be laid out for recognition.

“They should assess the issue of Afghanistan. They should analyze it in a better way. They should have a discussion about the problems of Afghanistan and its people,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

This comes as the UN warned earlier that it would be forced to pull out of Afghanistan if its female workers were not allowed to work.

UN Chief to Host Meeting on Afghanistan
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Nearly 17,000 Female Staff Still ‘Active’ and ‘Getting Paid’: UNDP

April 20, 2023
Bibi Amina Hakimi
TOLOnews’ Reporter
19 April 2023

The report said that there have been several improvements recently including security conditions, and “corruption has reportedly fallen.”

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that 17,000 female staff members are not leaving the work force and they are working from home, and they will continue to be UN staff.

The UNDP released a report on Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023.

The report reads that when coupled with a population increase of more than 2 percent, average real per capita income of ordinary Afghans by the end of 2022 was estimated to have declined by 28 percent from the 2020 level.

The report said that there have been several improvements recently including security conditions, and “corruption has reportedly fallen.”

The head of the UNDP in Afghanistan, Abdullah Dardari, held a press conference late Tuesday to brief the media about the organization’s activities in Afghanistan.

“17,000 staff — female staff … they are not leaving the work force. For now they are working from home and they will continue to be UN staff and they will continue to be paid and they will continue to be very active,” he said.

The study, “Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023,” released today in Kabul by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said Afghanistan’s economic output collapsed by 20.7 percent following the Taliban takeover in 2021.

This unparalleled shock has kept Afghanistan among the poorest countries in the world.

“We believe it is also time to focus on more sustainable projects especially banking, private sector, unemployment to help the Afghan people recover from this type of situation,” said the deputy ambassador to Turkey in Kabul, who attended the UNDP event.

The report said that despite tentative signs of recovery, such as a relatively stable exchange rate, an increase in exports, growing demand for labor, and muted inflation, GDP is estimated to have further declined by 3.6 percent in 2022.

Nearly 17,000 Female Staff Still ‘Active’ and ‘Getting Paid’: UNDP
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UN says leaving Afghanistan would be ‘heartbreaking’

April 20, 2023

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN

Associated Press

April 18, 2023

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is ready to take the “heartbreaking” decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May if it can’t persuade the Taliban to let local women work for the organization, the head of the U.N. Development Program said.

U.N. officials are negotiating with the Afghan government in the hope that it will make exceptions to an edict this month barring local women from U.N. work, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner told The Associated Press.

“It is fair to say that where we are right now is the entire United Nations system having to take a step back and reevaluating its ability to operate there,” Steiner said. “But it’s not about negotiating fundamental principles, human rights.”

The UNDP said Tuesday that it “reaffirms its long-standing commitment to stay and deliver for the people of Afghanistan.” Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said that the United Nations continues “to push back on this counterproductive, to say the least, edict by the authorities.”

The Taliban have allowed Afghan women to engage in some work, Steiner said, and a U.N. report released Tuesday shows that the country desperately needs more women working, with its economy flailing.

The Taliban takeover has been accompanied by some very modest signs of economic recovery. There has been some increase in exports, some exchange rate stabilization and less inflation. But gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced within Afghanistan’s borders, is expected to be outstripped by population growth, meaning that per capita income will decline from $359 in 2022 to $345 in 2024, the report says.

Some of those economic problems are due to Taliban policies keeping most women out of the workplace, Steiner said. Those economic problems mean more need in the country, but the U.N. has decided that human rights are non-negotiable and it will reduce its presence in May if the Taliban do not relent.

“I think there is no other way of putting it than heartbreaking,” Steiner said in Monday’s interview. “I mean, if I were to imagine the U.N. family not being in Afghanistan today, I have before me these images of millions of young girls, young boys, fathers, mothers, who essentially will not have enough to eat.”

A source of faint optimism is the Taliban’s allowing women to work in specific circumstances in health, education and some small businesses.

“In one sense, the de facto authorities have enabled the U.N. to roll out a significant humanitarian and also emergency development assistance set of activities,” Steiner said. “But they also continuously are shifting the goalposts, issuing new edicts.”

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking over the country in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war.

A spokesman for the Afghan Economy Ministry, Abdul Rahman Habib, told the AP that international banking restrictions, the halt in humanitarian assistance and climate change explain the country’s poverty rate and poor economy.

However, he cited lower inflation and dependence on imports, improved regional trade and business relations, and the eradication of poppy cultivation as signs of economic progress and good governance.

“Our future plans and priorities are developing the agricultural and industrial sectors as well as mining extraction, supporting domestic business and domestic products, more focus on exports, attracting domestic and foreign investors, creating special economic zones and much more,” Habib said.

This month the Taliban took a step further in the restrictive measures they have imposed on women and said that female Afghan staffers employed with the U.N. mission can no longer report for work.

“This is a very fundamental moment that we’re approaching,” Steiner said. “And obviously our hope and expectation is that there will be some common sense prevailing.”

Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans since the Taliban takeover and the economic collapse that followed it. No country has recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, and the country’s seat at the U.N. is held by the former government of President Ashraf Ghani.

The 3,300 Afghans employed by the U.N. — 2,700 men and 600 women — have stayed home since April 12 but continue to work and will be paid, Dujarric has said. The U.N.’s 600 international staff, including 200 women, is not affected by the Taliban ban.

“We are reviewing how we can do our work and how we can do it while respecting international human rights law,” he said Tuesday. “We are doing everything we can to see how we can continue to do that.”

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed from Islamabad.

UN says leaving Afghanistan would be ‘heartbreaking’
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US watchdog ‘cannot assure’ Afghanistan aid not going to Taliban

April 20, 2023
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 19 Apr 2023

The head of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has decried a lack of transparency from United States agencies that he said has made it impossible to determine if aid allocated to the people of Afghanistan is instead “currently funding the Taliban”.

During a fiery testimony on Wednesday to the US House Oversight Committee, Special Inspector John Sopko accused the State Department and other agencies of failing to provide legally mandated information that would allow the watchdog to perform its oversight duties.

SIGAR is charged with overseeing about $8bn that the US has “provided or otherwise made available” to the Afghan people.

Those funds, US officials have said, are meant to circumvent the Taliban, which Washington still considers a “terrorist organisation”. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan weeks before the US completed a full troop withdrawal in August 2021.

“I cannot report to this Committee or the American people on the extent to which our government may be funding the Taliban and other nefarious groups with US taxpayer dollars,” Sopko said in a prepared opening statement.

“We simply do not know since the Department of State, USAID, the UN and other agencies are refusing to give us basic information that we or any other oversight body would need to ensure safe stewardship of tax dollars.”

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on the claims.

The administration of President Joe Biden has “consistently provided updates and information” about the spending, she said.

That includes “thousands of pages of documents, analysis, spreadsheets and written responses to questions”, as well as congressional testimony and “hundreds of briefings to bipartisan members and also their staff”, Jean-Pierre explained.

The hearing comes a day after Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, said the country “remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in 2023”, with 28 million people now depending on aid to survive.

He added the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined by up to 35 percent in the last 18 months, with the cost of a basic food basket increasing by 30 percent and unemployment by 40 percent.

UN chief António Guterres has said he will convene a meeting of special envoys to Afghanistan on May 1 and 2 in Doha, Qatar, which is meant to “reinvigorate international engagement” on Afghanistan.

UN officials have also suggested the meeting could include “baby steps” towards the international community formally recognising the Taliban, albeit with conditions attached.

US aid to Afghanistan included $3.5bn transferred from otherwise frozen Afghan central banks funds to an international fund aimed at stabilising the country’s economy, Sopko said.

He also noted $2bn in humanitarian and development aid and another $2.8bn from the Department of Defense to support the transport, housing and food needs of Afghan allies evacuated from the country.

He added it was “clear” from the SIGAR’s work that the Taliban were benefitting from the aid, including by imposing customs and vendor charges on aid shipments coming into the country.

Sopko also accused the Taliban of diverting funds away from groups it “considers hostile”, such as the Hazaras ethnic minority, “and toward groups they favour”.

Those findings were detailed in the latest SIGAR report also released on Wednesday.

Later in the hearing, Sopko added: “I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV. They all seem to be fat, dumb and happy. I see a lot of starving Afghan children on TV. So I’m wondering where all this funding is going.”

Still, he stressed, the full benefits the Taliban were taking from foreign aid remain unknown.

“When SIGAR asked State how much revenue the Taliban is collecting from the UN, NGOs or other groups delivering international aid, shockingly State’s response was that it didn’t know,” he said.

“Similarly, the UN does not provide State or SIGAR detailed accounts of its expenditures, nor that of its partners. We believe this lack of information makes it impossible to make informed decisions about programme effectiveness.”

The watchdog’s latest report also painted a grim picture of the status of pledges to relocate the tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with the US during its two-decade occupation of the country.

The latest figures show 175,000 Afghans are waiting for the US government to process their Special Immigration Visa (SIV) or US refugee applications. With only about 20 percent of SIV applications already processed, the watchdog noted it could take decades to complete the relocation.

“According to one estimate, at the current pace, it will take 31 years to relocate and resettle all SIV applicants,” the report said.

On April 7, the Biden administration released a summary report of the Afghanistan withdrawal, in which the administration defended its decision to pull out of the country.

The agencies involved in the pullout largely placed the blame for its chaotic execution on decisions made by the administration of former President Donald Trump, including an overall lack of planning.

“Indeed, there were no such plans in place when President Biden came into office, even with the agreed upon full withdrawal just over three months away,” the summary report said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
US watchdog ‘cannot assure’ Afghanistan aid not going to Taliban
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Applicants Criticize Rise in Fees for Electronic IDs

April 17, 2023
TOLOnews
TV Network
17 April 2023

This comes as the National Statistics and Information Authority said that the prices have increased due to a surge in operational expenses.

Afghan applicants expressed criticism over the rising of electronic ID cards, saying that they have been asked to pay 500 Afs per one ID.

They also urged the Islamic Emirate to reduce the price.

The price of one ID card has increased from 300 to 500 Afs.

“The people of Afghanistan cannot afford ID cards at this price. We call on the Islamic Emirate to bring the price of Tazkiras to 100 Afs, which it was during the Republic time,” said Subhanallah, an applicant.

“The Tazkira should be less because some of the families are between eight to nine people. They cannot afford this Tazkira,” said Rasul, an applicant.

This comes as the National Statistics and Information Authority said that the prices have increased due to a surge in operational expenses.

“Based on a new decision of the National Statistic and Information Authority, the price of the electronic ID increased from 300 to 500 Afs. The main reason for this is the rise in service costs and the expense of carbonite cards in the international markets,” said Mohammad Haleem Rafi, a spokesman for the NSIA.

Based on the NSIA, between 14,000 to 15,000 ID cards are distributed each day across the country and a total of 3.8 million ID cards were distributed after the Islamic Emirate swept into power.

Applicants Criticize Rise in Fees for Electronic IDs
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Kazakhstan to Reopen Afghan Embassy, Consulate: Mullah Baradar

April 17, 2023
Mohammad Farshad Daryosh
TOLOnews’ Reporter
17 April 2023

In order to improve relations, the Islamic Emirate asked this high-ranking Kazakh official to receive the diplomats of the current Afghan government.

The first deputy of the prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said that Serik Zhumangarin, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister and Minister of Trade and Integration, pledged to reopen the embassy and consulate of the current Afghan government in Kazakhstan.

Baradar said that the Islamic Emirate is working on improving interactions with the world.

“They indicated this … yesterday, that we will reopen our embassy or consulate in Afghanistan and assured us that we can also reopen our embassy and consulate there,” Baradar noted.

A delegation of Kazakhstan, led by the deputy prime minister and minister of trade and integration, visited Kabul on Saturday and had meetings with a number of senior officials of the Islamic Emirate, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

In order to improve relations, the Islamic Emirate asked this high-ranking Kazakh official to receive the diplomats of the current Afghan government.

Meanwhile, some analysts said that accepting Islamic Emirate diplomats without also recognizing the current government is a one-way relationship.

“Sending and accepting diplomats without official recognition … is a one-way relationship and has one-sided benefits,” said Noorullah Raghi, former diplomat.

“If in general the international community, US, European Union, Russia, China does not give recognition, I don’t think other countries will recognize the Islamic Emirate,” said Noorullah Raghi, a former diplomat.

Although the Islamic Emirate has diplomatic missions in Tehran, Istanbul, Islamabad, Dubai, Moscow, Beijing, and a number of Arab and African nations, no nation has recognized the Islamic Emirate.

Kazakhstan to Reopen Afghan Embassy, Consulate: Mullah Baradar
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Taliban close education centers in southern Afghanistan

April 17, 2023

By RAHIM FAIEZ

Associated Press
17 April 2023

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan authorities are closing education centers and institutes supported by non-governmental groups in the south until further notice, officials said Monday. The centers are mostly for girls, who are banned from going to school beyond sixth grade.

The Education Ministry ordered the Taliban heartland provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to close education centers and institutes while a committee reviews their activities. It did not provide an explanation for the closures and a ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Mutawakil Ahmad, a spokesman for the Kandahar education department, confirmed that education centers’ activities are suspended until further notice. “The decision was made after people’s complaints,” said Ahmad, without providing further details.

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking over the country in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war.

The female education ban extends to universities. Women are barred from public spaces, including parks, and most forms of employment. Last year, Afghan women were barred from working at national and local NGOs, allegedly because they weren’t wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf, correctly and a gender segregation requirement wasn’t being followed. This order also includes the United Nations.

At least two NGO officials in Helmand confirmed they knew about the Education Ministry’s order. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.

One said the NGO was active in nine districts, offering around 650 classes with 20 to 30 students in each class. Girls and boys attend the classes, he said, but mostly girls as they can’t attend schools.

Most projects are from UNICEF, the U.N. children’s organization, with local NGOs working as sub-contractors or project implementers. Female and male teachers work in separate classes.

Ministry workers supervise all their activities, the official added.

Noone from UNICEF in Afghanistan was immediately available for comment.

An education official in Kandahar said many NGOs are active in the education sector and provide education for girls. But he said there is a need to review their activities as there is no accountability over their expenses and there are concerns over corruption and suspicions about centers and institutes being ghost schools. The official, a district director of education, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

It was not clear how many centers and institutes were shuttered or how many students are affected in the two provinces because of the order.

Taliban close education centers in southern Afghanistan
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West Meets Qatar’s Prime Minister, Discusses Afghanistan

April 15, 2023
Fatema Adeeb
Tolo News
15 April 2023

“Qatar is a crucial partner as we seek to protect US interests, support the Afghan people and defend their rights,” West said.

US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, who is on a regional trip, met with Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and special envoy for conflict resolution Mutlaq Al-Qahtani to discuss “the way ahead in Afghanistan.”

In a series of tweets about the meeting, West said they consider Qatar as a crucial partner of the US, adding that Washington is committed to defending the rights of the Afghan people.

“Qatar is a crucial partner as we seek to protect US interests, support the Afghan people and defend their rights,” West said.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in an interview with a Qatari media outlet, said that his country has played an important role in the agreement between the US and the current government in Afghanistan.

“The government of Qatar has worked and played a significant role in many regional and international cases in the field of mediation and achieved success in the area of the agreement between the US and the Afghan Taliban,” Qatar’s Prime Minister said.

“The people of Afghanistan, all Afghan politicians and officials, as well as countries in the region, hope that the start of Thomas West’s trip to regional and neighboring countries of Afghanistan will be helpful in solving problems faced by the people of Afghanistan,” said Najib Rahman Shamal, a political affairs analyst.

West also met with Hekmat Khalil Karzai, the former deputy foreign minister under the previous government, and discussed the lifting of restrictions on women’s employment and education.

“Over the last few decades, the issue of violation of human rights and women’s rights has been a challenge for the governments in Afghanistan. I hope that the current government takes this matter into consideration so that Afghanistan gets rid of political and economic isolation,” said Zalmay Afghanyar, a political affairs analyst.

Previously, the US State Department in a statement said that its special envoy is visiting the UAE, Qatar, and Turkey at a time when women are not permitted to work in UN offices in the province of Nangarhar.

West Meets Qatar’s Prime Minister, Discusses Afghanistan
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