Participants of SCO Meeting Urge Kabul to Ensure Inclusive Govt

May 5, 2023 Current News Articles

Mohammad Farshad Daryosh

TOLOnews’ Reporter

5 May 2023

Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that ensuring peace in Afghanistan is the key to peace in the region and the world.

The foreign ministers of India, Russia and Pakistan on Friday called for a representative government in Afghanistan and the protection of women’s rights.

They were speaking at the day-long meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Indian coastal resort state of Goa, just ahead of a meeting scheduled over the weekend in Pakistan between the foreign ministers of Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.

Speaking at the meeting, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that “the unfolding situation in Afghanistan remains at the center of our attention. Our efforts should be directed towards the welfare of the Afghan people.”

“Our immediate priorities include providing humanitarian assistance, ensuring a truly inclusive and representative government, combating terrorism and drug trafficking, and preserving the rights of women, children and minorities,” Jaishankar said.

Russia’s Sergei Lavrov said Moscow expected the current Afghan government to “deliver on their promises to come up with an inclusive government”.

“The assurances that were given in regards of human rights, security in the territory of Afghanistan, and the eradication of terrorist threats, drug trafficking, we are keeping an eye on this,” Lavrov said.

Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that ensuring peace in Afghanistan is the key to peace in the region and the world.

“A peaceful and stable Afghanistan is a key not only to regional integration and economic cooperation but also to global peace and stability,” Zardari said.

“The absence of the formation of an inclusive government will challenge Afghanistan’s stable security perspective in the future,” said Mehdi Manadi, a political analyst.

In reaction to this meeting, Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Islamic Emirate’s political office in Qatar, said that there should be discussion regarding the solution of the country’s present issues and the recognition of the Islamic Emirate in every meeting on Afghanistan.

“The current sanctions imposed on Afghanistan should be lifted, the foreign exchange reserves of the Afghanistan Bank should be returned, and the present government should be recognized,” Shaheen said.

China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India are all permanent members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), whereas Afghanistan is a member as an observer.

Work Suspension Ends for Afghan UN Employees in Country

May 5, 2023 Current News Articles

Banafsha Binesh

Tolo News

5 May 2023

US State Dept Spokesperson’s Remarks on Recognition of Islamic Emirate

May 5, 2023 Current News Articles

Mitra Majeedy

Tolo News

5 May 2023

Head of the Islamic Emirate’s Qatar based political office, Suhail Shaheen, said that the Islamic Emirate wants to be recognized by the international community

The US Department of State’s deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a press briefing that there are several issues in Afghanistan that makes life challenging and difficult for the Afghan people and that need to be addressed before any kind of international engagement or recognition will take place with the current Afghan government.

“What Special Representative West was referring to was that there continue to persist a number of issues in Afghanistan that make – that the Afghan people – that makes life for the Afghan people challenging and difficult that need to be addressed prior to any kind of international engagement or recognition to take place as it relates to the Taliban,” Patel said.

Speaking at the press briefing, Patel said that some examples of these challenges are the “continued presence of terrorist organizations, the lack of inclusivity, especially as it relates to human rights – specifically human rights and its impact on women and girls. Many of these areas have been undermined recently by decisions by the Taliban.”

Meanwhile, the Germany in Afghanistan on Twitter said that the international community will not recognize the current Afghan government unless it moves on women’s rights and create an inclusive government.

“The International community stands united in its stance towards the DFA. No recognition unless the DFA moves on women‘s rights, inclusive government, unhindered humanitarian access and other issues!,” Germany in Afghanistan tweeted.

“One of the conditions for recognition of the present government of Afghanistan is that they respect human rights, address women’s rights, and provide a framework for all activities for women,” said Najibullah Shamal, a political analyst.

However, the head of the Islamic Emirate’s Qatar-based political office, Suhail Shaheen, said that the Islamic Emirate wants to be recognized by the international community.

“Sadly, some nations use sanctions on Afghanistan as a way to put pressure on the country, from which the people suffer. On the other hand, they are promoting human rights, which contradicts one another,” Shaheen noted.

Previously, the US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, referring to the Doha meeting, said the solution of the current challenges in Afghanistan is in political dialogue between Afghans.

‘We can’t remain silent’: journalists refuse to give up despite Taliban terror

May 4, 2023 Current News Articles

Ruchi Kumar

The Guardian

Thu 4 May 2023 05.00 EDT

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, one-third of journalists have left, while those who remain live with threats, attacks, unlawful detention and extortion

Mortaza Behboudi, an Afghan-French journalist, had been drawn back to Afghanistan, which he had left aged 21, to report on the deteriorating humanitarian conditions and situation for women.

“He has a passion to give voice to people who had their voices taken from them, which is why he went back to Afghanistan,” says Aleksandra Mostovaja, Behboudi’s wife.

“He felt it was so important that he should be there, not only because he knew the language, the history, its culture, but also because any story on Afghanistan without perspective of its people will not be complete.”

But on 7 January, two days after he had arrived in Kabul and before he could even begin his work, Behboudi, a French national of Afghan origin, was arrested by the Taliban. Mostovaja has spoken to him just once since – a short phone call in the presence of the Taliban – on 26 January.

“His voice sounded very bad, like he was about to cry and that has made me very worried [abut his condition]. The Taliban have not told us officially why he was arrested, but sources told us that he might be accused of spying, which just isn’t true,” she says.

Mostovaja believes his reporting may have been a reason for his detention. “Some journalists told us that they [the Taliban] make such arrests as a warning to others about what they can do to those who report against them,” she adds.

Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have repeatedly targeted journalists. Faced with threats to their lives and increasing restrictions on their work, particularly against women, many are being forced into exile. About one-third of Afghanistan’s journalists have since left the country, with 318 of the 623 media outlets registered in 33 Afghan provinces shutting down, according to one estimate last year.

Several journalists that spoke to the Guardian shared testimonies of threats, attacks, unlawful detention and extortion.

Attacks on journalists in Afghanistan are not limited to the Taliban. Mohammad Sahil*, a 28-year-old Afghan reporter, survived an Islamic State bomb attack in March at an event to honour local journalists at the Tebyan cultural centre in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“Everything went dark, and I lost consciousness for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes, blood was flowing at the back of my neck and my eyes were filled with smoke and dirt. All my colleagues were lying broken and bloodied around me,” he says.

The attack claimed the lives of two Afghan journalists and injured dozens of others, including Sahil, who suffered severe damage to his ears. “I have been living in fear since then, changing locations every night. As a Hazara and a journalist, I am an Isis target,” he says, referring to the historically persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan. “Sometimes I have no hope left that I will survive to have a future,” he adds.

Sahil says he had made several unsuccessful attempts to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. The Taliban had taken over his office and turned it into a religious school.

“After I lost my job, and facing security challenges for my work, I decided to go to Iran, hoping to apply for asylum to a European country from there,” he says. However, he was forced to return to Afghanistan after being unable to extend his visa in Iran.

Back in Afghanistan, he found work as a freelancer to support his family, but the attack has convinced him he needs to leave Afghanistan once again.

“Life in exile is extremely difficult, but I could be hurt and even killed in Afghanistan. The days pass with despair and they are darker than the darkest nights,” he says.

Even before the Taliban takeover, Ahmad Idrees*, a 38-year-old Afghan journalist, had faced threats from the insurgent group. Letters bearing Taliban insignia, delivered to his office and home in northern Afghanistan, would declare him an infidel and a traitor, with threats to punish him for his critical reporting of the group’s activities.

“When they finally took over, I started to receive incessant calls and messages on social media threatening to kill me and hurt my family. After months of hiding in different locations, I had no option but to escape the country,” he says.

Idrees is among an estimated 250,000 Afghans living in Pakistan, but even there he doesn’t feel safe. In February this year, he was arrested along with a colleague by the local police and forced to pay a bribe.

Several Afghans interviewed for this story confirmed that it is common for authorities in Iran and Pakistan to extort refugees. In January, more than 600 refugees in Pakistan were sent back to Afghanistan, leaving many exiles in constant fear for their lives and afraid to leave their homes.

Mostovaja has had little contact with her husband since the Taliban-monitored phone call three months ago. She says he had felt safe coming back to Afghanistan on a French passport.

“It is not possible to understand what is happening in Afghanistan without Afghan journalists. Which is why it is important to fight for their freedom of speech and expression. We can’t remain silent,” she says.

*Names have been changed to protect identities

Over 300 Media Outlets Closed in Around 2 Years

May 4, 2023 Current News Articles

TOLOnews

TV Network

3 May 2023

Several media representatives criticized what they consider the difficulties facing the nation’s journalists and media.

On World Press Freedom Day, some media-supporting organizations said that more than 300 media outlets have shut down in Afghanistan in the past two years and that over 5,000 journalists have lost their jobs.

Some of the challenges that journalists and media complain about include lack of access to information, violence directed at journalists, and economic issues with the media.

“Our coworkers are searching for information, but sadly, the information that must be provided to the media is not provided in a timely and accurate manner. Few Islamic Emirate spokespeople cooperate in this area, if it is provided,” said Hojatullah Mujadidi, chairman of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association.

“Governments must create an appropriate environment for media and media-related activity. As the laws have provided guidance in this matter,” said Abdul Qadim Viyar, the head of the safety committee.

Several media representatives criticized what they consider the difficulties facing the nation’s journalists and media.

“The reporter is arrested. He is harassed and imprisoned for hours and later released by the Ministry of Culture and Information,” said Abdul Qadir Monsef, head of Pajhwok Afghan News.

“Most of the time, they don’t pick up when our colleagues call them, and when we try to call them, the news has already lost its importance and we get that information from foreign media,” said Zabihullah Sadaat, director of TOLOnews.

Some journalists said that they do not have access to timely information from government officials, and besides the increase in violence, financial issues have hindered their activities.

“Access to information has decreased unprecedently, and the work of information and journalism is also challenged and plagued with issues like lack of immunity and forced censorship,” said Dawood, a journalist.

The Ministry of Information and Culture said that the Islamic Emirate supports the activities of the media within the framework of the laws of the country.

“The government has always stated its full support for public media, whether it be print, audio, or video, within the framework of Islamic values, national interests, and the highest interests of the country,” said Abdul Matin Qane, the spokesman of the Ministry of Information and Culture.

On World Press Freedom Day, UNAMA in a statement “expresses serious concern for the future of Afghanistan’s media, with journalists forced to work in climate of intimidation and fear amid increased restrictions by the Taliban de facto authorities.”

According to the UNAMA statement, Afghanistan stood at 156 (out of 180 countries) in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a drop from its place at 122 in 2020.

U.N. struggling to strike balance in Afghanistan amid humanitarian crisis

May 3, 2023 Current News Articles

By Rick Noack

The Washington Post

May 3, 2023

DOHA, Qatar — Twenty months after the Taliban returned to power, the United Nations is struggling to plot a course that, in part, would address Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis without running afoul of Western countries seeking to pressure the government in Kabul to moderate its policies.

Emerging from two days of talks with diplomatic envoys focused on Afghanistan, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Tuesday sought to portray a united front, saying that “to achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage” from Afghanistan. Guterres offered few details about what the future U.N. presence in the country would look like.

Just weeks ago, the United Nations suggested it might pull out of Afghanistan, and the Taliban’s latest crackdown on women’s rights, banning Afghan women from working for the organization, loomed large over this week’s meeting.

Increasingly, the world body finds itself at the center of an international debate about where to draw red lines in supporting Afghanistan and in an uncomfortable position as an intermediary between the West and the Taliban. No country has officially recognized the Taliban government, though some — including China and Russia — have allowed Taliban diplomats into their countries. The United States and other Western countries have been reluctant to do so and no longer maintain embassies in Kabul.

Women’s activists had called for a boycott of the Doha meeting, arguing that the United Nations should take a bolder stance against the Taliban. The Taliban, meanwhile, says the organization has already taken too strong of a stance.

Muhammad Suhail Shaheen, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha and the group’s designated U.N. representative, said he was not invited to the talks. Speaking in an interview, he said, “The U.N. is a world body — it should be neutral.” The decision to not include the Taliban will “harm their credibility,” he said.

Nor is there any international consensus about what the U.N. role in Afghanistan should be. While the Security Council in March extended the U.N.’s mandate to help the Afghan people, donor countries have so far only met about 6 percent of the funding target.

Finding a path forward on Afghanistan “is not an easy task — and it may be historically difficult and challenging for the U.N.,” said Mona Juul, the Norwegian ambassador to the United Nations in New York, whose country led the Security Council’s efforts on Afghanistan until recently.

The past few weeks may have illustrated how risky the balancing act can be. After deputy U.N. secretary general Amina J. Mohammed suggested that this week’s talks could allow for “baby steps” toward international recognition of the Taliban, the backlash was swift and strong.

The United Nations quickly walked back Mohammed’s comments, but the damage was difficult to undo. Over recent days, Afghan activists have shared videos on social media that appeared to show women staging a rare protest in Kabul over the weekend against international recognition of the Taliban. The public backlash may reflect a broader sentiment among Afghan refugees and activists that the organization should be taking bolder steps, said Hosna Jalil, a deputy minister for women’s and interior affairs under the previous Afghan government.

While the United Nations continues to employ female staff in Afghanistan, some women’s rights activists worry that making many of them work from home — which the organization had previously argued was because of safety concerns — signals an unacceptable level of adherence to Taliban orders.

If you want to counter the Taliban, said Jalil, women’s “work needs to be visible to the public.”

“If not the U.N., then who?” she said.

As the special envoys convened in Doha to discuss what a U.N. spokesman called a “durable way forward” in Afghanistan, the meeting’s location was a reminder of the wishful thinking immediately following the Taliban takeover in 2021. The United States and the Taliban had signed a peace agreement in Doha in 2020, prompting some optimism that the group would exercise more moderation than during its first time in power a generation ago.

The gulf between the West and the new Afghan rulers has widened in the 20 months since the Taliban took over, with both sides accusing each other of violating the Doha agreement. Guterres on Tuesday said the international community is concerned about Afghanistan’s role in terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as women’s and other human rights.

Western concerns over being seen as supportive of the Taliban may partly explain the steep cuts in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan. Hugo Slim, a humanitarian studies researcher, recently wrote a blog post advocating that aid groups suspend operations in Afghanistan rather than cooperate with the Taliban.

“There comes a point when humanitarians can’t go on running an effective sort of trusteeship where the deal is: Okay, we’ll run the welfare state, and you can screw up the politics of your country and commit political crimes,” he said in an interview.

But this week’s meeting in Doha suggests that the U.N. presence in Afghanistan will look much like the status quo. U.N. agencies and other aid groups appear to be focusing their energies on finding ways to circumvent the Taliban ban on female staff.

There is no alternative to delivering aid or to engaging with the Taliban, said Juul, the Norwegian U.N. ambassador, whose government hosted some of the first talks with the Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal.

“The Taliban themselves have given up on their own population and especially their own women. But we as an international community cannot do that,” she said.

Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

India-Iran Joint Statement Calls for Inclusive Afghan Govt

May 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Fatema Adeeb

Tolo News

2 May 2023

The statement said that Iran and India support the establishment of an inclusive government in Afghanistan that involves all ethnic groups.

India and Iran expressed concern over the humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan in a joint statement following a visit of India PM’s national security advisor Ajit Dual to Iran.

The statement said that Iran and India support the establishment of an inclusive government in Afghanistan that involves all ethnic groups.

“The parties expressed concern about the social and economic situation in Afghanistan and supported the establishment of an inclusive government with meaningful participation of all groups and ethnic groups,” the statement reads.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a meeting with Ajit Dual, the national security advisor to the Indian Prime Minister, that the strengthening of bilateral ties between Tehran and New Delhi can have “constructive effects” in resolving regional concerns, including the issue of Afghanistan.

However, the Ministry of Economy of the Islamic Emirate said that economic challenges in Afghanistan are due to the freezing of Afghan assets.

“The economic problems in Afghanistan are brought on by the freezing of the Afghan people’s money and the sanctions imposed by some powerful countries, but experience has shown that systematic pressure does not work,” said Abdul Latif Nazari, Deputy Minister of Economy.

“Over the past 20 months, Afghanistan’s government and people have both felt the strain of economic pressure, but the joint statement of India and Iran is based on the definition of their interests in order to align their political views on the current government of Afghanistan,” said Zalmay Afghanyar, a political analyst.

According to some analysts, the creation of an inclusive government in the country is a necessity.

“The necessity of an inclusive government is felt more than ever before. The issue of Afghanistan is not external, it has an internal aspect,” said Wahid Faqiri, an international relations expert.

Nearly 21 months have passed since the Islamic Emirate came to power, but the international community has yet to recognize it. As a result, nations have repeatedly emphasized the need for the establishment of an inclusive government, respecting women’s rights, including their right to work and education.

Karimi Dismisses Concerns Voiced in Doha Meeting of Terrorist Presence

May 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Banafsha Binesh

Tolo News

3 May 2023

The meeting in Doha was held for two days and attended by representatives of more than 22 countries and organizations.

The Islamic Emirate deputy spokesperson said that the concerns of participants at the UN meeting in Doha regarding the presence of the terrorists in Afghanistan are baseless.

Speaking at a press conference, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said that the participants of the Doha meeting are worried about the stability of Afghanistan and “they have expressed those serious concerns; they relate to the persistent presence of terrorist organizations’ risk for the country, the region and further… the lack of inclusivity which importantly includes human rights, particularly those of women and girls, severely undermined by recent Taliban decision.”

The deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, Bilal Karimi, said that Afghan soil is secure and no one should be concerned.

“These remarks and allegations are baseless. No side should be worried about the security in Afghanistan,” Karimi said.

Political analysts gave various opinions in this regard.

“There is no hope until they accept the legitimate wishes of the world and UN,” said Torialai Zazai, a political analyst.

“The focus of the Doha meeting is more about forming a framework regarding Afghanistan but I think there were expectations from the Doha meeting to seriously solve the issues of Afghanistan, and I don’t think we will reach that result,” said Nematullah Bizhan, a political analyst.

Guterres also said that the UN will convene a similar meeting in the future.

This comes as some citizens interviewed by TOLOnews urged the international community to take practical actions regarding the issues of Afghanistan.

“The schools should be reopened, so that everyone can be educated,” said Nabi, a resident of Jawzjan.

“The representative of the Islamic Emirate should be invited so that they can form a national consensus,” said Safiullah Aziz, a resident of Uruzgan.

The meeting in Doha was held for two days and attended by representatives of more than 22 countries and organizations.

Report: Taliban interfering with NGO work in Afghanistan

May 3, 2023 Current News Articles

Associated Press

3 May 2023

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Taliban fighter recently fired his rifle into the air at a food distribution event in Afghanistan, an example of their harassment of nongovernmental groups operating in the country, a report from a U.S. watchdog said Wednesday.

The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab — the Islamic headscarf — correctly and were not observing gender segregation rules. In April, they said this ban extended to U.N. offices and agencies in Afghanistan.

The measure is being actively enforced by the country’s intelligence agency, which reports to the Taliban’s leadership in Kandahar, although their chief spokesman says there are no obstacles for U.N. operations in Afghanistan.

The latest quarterly report from the watchdog for U.S. assistance to Afghanistan, SIGAR, cited examples of Taliban interference and harassment of NGOs, including the rifle incident.

Organizations face security risks and harassment at Taliban checkpoints, unannounced Taliban visits to NGO offices, repeated requests for information on work plans, budgets, operations, and personnel, and demands for increased involvement in project decision-making and implementation.

The April ban on women working for the United Nations likely signals that they will “continue to interfere” in NGO operations to the detriment of the Afghan people, according to the report.

The U.N. told SIGAR that, in addition to the challenges posed by specific Taliban policies, weak Taliban governance and tension between central and provincial authorities make an effective humanitarian response difficult to implement.

“This dysfunction is expected to limit the ability to implement policies which sustain critical public and basic services and reduce needs,” the report said, with the U.N. telling the watchdog that a “more restrictive environment lies ahead.”

Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021 and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely affected by the Taliban edict banning women from working at NGOs — and, now, also at the U.N.

The Economy Ministry, which supervises NGO work in Afghanistan, rejected the SIGAR claims. Ministry spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib said there were no reports of checkpoint harassment or other interference.

A “special procedure” to improve NGO performance and solve problems has been shared with all aid agencies and U.N. offices in Afghanistan, he said, without providing further details on the procedure.

He also reiterated that the December order, issued by the ministry, remains in place. Afghan women are permitted to work for NGOs in certain sectors, such as health and education, but not others.

SIGAR’s report follows a closed-door U.N. summit on Afghanistan that the world body described as an event where nations and organizations were trying to reach unified stances on human rights, governance, counterterrorism and anti-drug efforts related to Afghanistan.

The Taliban were not invited to the meeting, which was held in Qatar.

U.N. Security Council Unanimously Condemns Taliban’s Treatment of Women

May 3, 2023 Current News Articles

By Farnaz Fassihi

The New York Times

Published April 28, 2023

The resolution, an uncommon display of consensus on the Council, called for the Taliban to end their prohibitions on women working and attending school after sixth grade.

In a rare show of unity, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Thursday condemning the Taliban’s discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan and called for the country’s leadership to swiftly reverse policies banning education, employment and equal public participation of women and girls.

The resolution, co-sponsored by over 90 countries, received 15 yes votes and was unanimously adopted in Russia’s last days in its monthlong role as the rotating president of the Council.

“The world will not stand by silently as the women of Afghanistan are erased from society,” said Lana Nusseibeh, the U.A.E.’s U.N. ambassador, who led the drafting of the resolution with Japan’s representative. She said the Council was sending an “unequivocal message of condemnation” to the Taliban for their treatment of women and girls.

The resolution, which called for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan,” also addressed the Taliban administration’s edict on April 4 prohibiting the United Nations from employing Afghan women. That stance — “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations,” the resolution said — “undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.”

The 15-member Security Council has been sharply divided since Russia invaded Ukraine, unable to find a consensus position on many of the world’s most pressing problems. While the Council was able to finally come together over the Taliban’s treatment of women, the negotiations over the resolution’s final wording were complex and lengthy, according to diplomats involved in the talks.

The resolution, legally binding under international law, does not specify what consequences the Taliban administration in Afghanistan will face if they violate its demands. But generally the Security Council can impose sanctions on countries or governments that do not comply with its resolutions.

“The Taliban has reneged on its promises to the international community and to Afghan women and girls by implementing oppressive measures against them, including barring them from working with the U.N. and N.G.O.s and from attending universities and secondary schools,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., in a written statement after the vote. “These draconian edicts only prevent Afghanistan from achieving stability, economic prosperity and future growth.”

Even with the Council reaching unanimity on the vote, tensions were evident.

After its withdrawal from the country, the United States froze $7 billion in assets from Afghanistan’s Central Bank.

With Afghanistan’s economy in dire condition, the resolution stressed the need for the international community to help on the financial front, “including through efforts to enable the use of assets belonging to Afghanistan’s Central Bank for the benefit of the Afghan people.”

In its address to the Council, China criticized the hasty American exit from Afghanistan and its decision to freeze the assets. China, one of the Council’s permanent members, urged Washington to “make up for the harm it has caused to the Afghan people rather than continue to aggravate their suffering.”

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vasily A. Nebenzya, said the Western members of the Council had blocked a more ambitious resolution that would have addressed the impact of sanctions on the Taliban and how to restore the assets that he said the United States had “stolen” from the country when it froze the Central Bank funds.

The continued discrimination against women and girls has been a major obstacle in the Taliban’s attempt to gain recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 and the collapse of the Western-backed government.

Despite the Taliban’s ban on employing Afghan women, the United Nations has said it is not yet planning to pull out of the country because of the grave humanitarian needs of the Afghan people. Nearly two-thirds of Afghanistan’s 40 million population rely on humanitarian aid for food and medicine.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said in a statement in April that it cannot comply with the ban because it is against international law and the principles of the U.N. charter. It has ordered its Afghan employees, both women and men, to stay home, and has launched a full review of its operations in Afghanistan that is due on May 5.

The Taliban “seek to force the United Nations into having to make an appalling choice between staying and delivering in support of the Afghan people and standing by the norms and principles we are duty-bound to uphold,” the statement said.

Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have steadily limited the rights of women and girls, reversing the advances made over two decades since a U.S.-led military invasion in 2001 ended the Taliban’s first phase as Afghanistan’s rulers.

Over the past year, the Taliban’s top leadership has banned girls from education after sixth grade, prevented women from working most jobs and restricted their presence in public life.

In a statement released on Friday, the Taliban said they welcomed “parts” of the resolution, including its “acknowledgment that Afghanistan faces multifaceted challenges.” But they added that their decision to restrict Afghan women from working with the United Nations “is an internal social matter of Afghanistan that does not impact outside states.”

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, is convening a meeting next month in Doha, Qatar, to find a way forward in Afghanistan with regards to humanitarian operations, the governance of the Taliban and counterterrorism.

The United Nations has said the Doha meeting is not about recognition for the Taliban, an issue that is up to member states to decide.

Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations is still held by the former government. The Taliban have appointed Suhail Shaheen, head of the group’s political office in Doha, but so far, he has not been recognized by the U.N.’s credentials committee.

Christina Goldbaum contributed reporting.

Farnaz Fassihi is a reporter for The New York Times based in New York. Previously she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East.

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