Taliban, West hold dialogue in Oslo

agencies Oslo the overall humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, which has escalated drastically since last August is being discussed at a meeting between re...

agenciesOslo the overall humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, which has escalated drastically since last August is being discussed at a meeting between representatives of the Taliban and Western diplomats.Another important on the agenda is treatment of women in Afghanistan after the Taliban again seized power last year.The talks are being held near Norway’s capital Oslo. The three-day talks that started on Sunday are scheduledto continue tomorrow.Alongside Western representatives, the Taliban are also meeting fellow Afghans in the Norwegian capital, including women, journalists and human rights activists.It is the first time that Taliban delegates have travelled to a Western country since they retook power. The meeting has been the focus of international criticism, with Afghans protesting both in Oslo and outside Norwegian embassies abroad to voice their sense of betrayal.The closed-door discussions with representatives of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, the European Union and Norway are being held on Monday at the Soria Moria Hotel, on a snowy hilltop outside Oslo.On Sunday, during the first day of the three-day talks, the Taliban met with Afghan civil society members, including women activists and journalists, for talks on human rights.Women’s rights activist Jamila Afghani, who attended Sunday’s talks, told the AFP news agency “it was a positive icebreaking meeting”.The Taliban has been demanding that its assets of nearly $10bn held by the US be released and Afghanistan be linked to global trade.International aid came to a halt following the Taliban’s return to power on August 15, worsening the plight of millions of people already suffering from hunger after severe droughts. The freezing of Afghan central bank assets worth billions of dollars by the US and suspension of funds by international financial institutions have triggered a banking crisis and caused a near collapse of the Afghan economy.“We are requesting them to unfreeze Afghan assets and not punish ordinary Afghans because of the political discourse,” Taliban delegate Shafiullah Azam said at the end of the first day of talks.He also said the meetings with Western officials were “a step to legitimise (the) Afghan government”, adding that “this type of invitation and communication will help (the) European community, (the) US or many other countries to erase the wrong picture of the Afghan government”.However, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt has stressed that the talks were “not a legitimation or recognition of the Taliban”.A US delegation, led by Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West, plans to discuss “the formation of a representative political system; responses to the urgent humanitarian and economic crises; security and counterterrorism concerns; and human rights, especially education for girls and women”, according to a statement released by the US State Department.