Afghan neighbours mull Taliban recognition after cabinet named

dpa Islamabad/Moscow Pakistan on Wednesday urged the international community to engage with Afghans in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis as fears fo...

dpa Islamabad/Moscow Pakistan on Wednesday urged the international community to engage with Afghans in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis as fears for women’s rights grew after the Taliban announced their all-male caretaker government.“Renewed diplomatic and international presence in the country (Afghanistan) would reassure the Afghan people,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.The minister spoke at a virtual meeting of his counterparts from countries sharing borders with Afghanistan, hosted by Islamabad, a day after the Taliban announced the government.Foreign ministers of China, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan attended the meeting to discuss whether to recognize the new government in Afghanistan.“If a humanitarian crisis is prevented and economic stability is assured, then peace can be consolidated and a mass exodus precluded,” Qureshi said.Qureshi’s comments came hours after Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said Islamabad will not make a hasty decision to recognize Afghanistan’s new rulers.Pakistan, often accused of supporting the Taliban, had earlier said it won’t take a unilateral decision on recognition of the militia and prefers a collective approach with the regional players.  Fears for women’s rights, as well as freedom of speech and assembly, grew after the Taliban announced on Tuesday a government made up of veterans of the militant movement, ignoring women and people from rival political and ethnic groups, including the Hazaras.The Hazaras were persecuted by the Taliban during its rule in the late 1990s.The Red Cross on Wednesday also called for dialogue with the militant group, warning that aid shipments would not suffice to fight the socio-economic crisis in Afghanistan.“It will need a broader framework of political and economic engagement with the new authorities,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer said during a four-day visit in the Afghan city of Kandahar.Other countries should now consider whether sanctions against the Taliban would have a negative impact on the Afghan population, Maurer said.He also met with the newly appointed government deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.The ICRC has been working in Taliban areas in the past, Maurer said, and intends to continue its work there.In Moscow, the Kremlin said it had no immediate plans for direct talks with Afghanistan’s transitional government, according to comments made by spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and reported by the Interfax news agency.“Any contact will be conducted through our embassy in Kabul,” Peskov said, adding that one of the main issues was ensuring the safety of Russian diplomats in Afghanistan. “No further talks are planned,” Peskov said.Russia, he said, would be watching what the Taliban does next, as most countries are, Peskov added. The Taliban is designated as a terrorist organization in Russia.The militant Islamist group presented their transitional government in Kabul on Tuesday, announcing a 33-member cabinet.Although Russia has been negotiating with the Taliban, it views their triumphant advance with concern. Moscow is particularly worried about the potential for militants to enter the territory of its Central Asian neighbours, and of increased drug smuggling.Uzbekistan welcomed the transitional cabinet announcement: “We hope that this decision will be the beginning of reaching a broad national consensus and creating lasting peace and stability in the country,” the foreign ministry in Tashkent said, adding that Uzbekistan was “ready for constructive dialogue.” “The situation in Afghanistan directly affects the situation in the countries of Central Asia,” said Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon. He called on the international community to make more efforts to solve Afghanistan’s problems.In Brussels, EU spokesperson Peter Stano said Wednesday that the new Cabinet did “not look like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of the rich ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan we hoped to see and that the Taliban were promising.” Last week, the European Union, which is a major aid and development donor to Afghanistan, said a representative government formation would be one of its key conditions for engagement with the Taliban.European Council President Charles Michel spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Both have a common interest in regional stability, Michel wrote on Twitter.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday also criticized that the new Cabinet only consists of members and allies of the Taliban contrary to the group’s promises, after a meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany.Following the meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the Taliban once again to “make good on their commitments, also on human rights and safe passage.”