Taliban and Western authorities gather in Oslo to discuss Afghanistan Taliban News

Taliban and Western diplomats are holding a meeting outside the Norwegian capital Oslo to discuss the issue of Afghanistan. humanitarian crisis, it has risen sharply since the Taliban returned to power 20 years ago in a U.S.-led invasion last August.

Closed-door talks with representatives from the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, the European Union and Norway are taking place on Monday at the Soria Moria Hotel on a snowy hill outside Oslo.

On Sunday, meanwhile on the first day from the three-day talks, the Taliban met with members of Afghan civil society, including women activists and journalists, for talks on human rights.

Women’s rights activist Jamila Afghani, who took part in Sunday’s talks, told the AFP news agency that “it was a positive meeting to break the ice”.

The Taliban “showed good will … Let’s see what they will be based on their words,” he said.

The 15 members of the men’s delegation arrived on Saturday in a plane loaded by the Norwegian government.

Defrost assets

The Taliban are demanding the release of nearly $ 10 billion worth of U.S. assets and linking Afghanistan to world trade.

International aid was suspended after the Taliban returned to power on August 15, and worsened the situation of millions of people suffering from hunger after severe droughts.

The $ 1 billion freeze on the assets of Afghan central banks and the suspension of funds by international financial institutions have led to a banking crisis and the near collapse of the Afghan economy.

“We urge them to thaw Afghan goods and not punish ordinary Afghans for their political rhetoric,” Taliban Shafiullah Azam told a spokesman for The Associated Press at the end of the first day of talks.

“Because of the famine, the deadly winter, I think it’s time for the international community to help Afghans, not to punish them for political conflicts.”

Meetings with Western authorities are “a step towards legitimizing the Afghan government,” he said. Photo by the Afghan government. ”

However, Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt had previously stressed that the talks were not “legitimizing or recognizing the Taliban”.

A U.S. delegation, led by Afghan High Representative Tom West, “intends to discuss the formation of a representative political system; responses to emergency humanitarian and economic crises; security and counter-terrorism concerns; and human rights, especially the education of girls and women, ”according to a statement issued by the US State Department.

Protest against the Taliban

On Sunday, 200 protesters gathered in a frozen square in front of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in Oslo to condemn meetings with the Taliban who have not received any diplomatic recognition from the foreign government.

“The Taliban have not changed as some in the international community have said,” said Ahman Yasir, a 20-year-old Afghan who has lived in Norway. “In 2001 and as wild as before.”

Former Afghan parliamentary speaker Fawzia Koofi, who is also involved in negotiations with the Taliban, told Al Jazeera that the current talks only help strengthen the group’s power.

Demonstrators rallied against the visit of Taliban representatives outside the Norwegian Foreign Ministry in Oslo. [Torstein Bøe/NTB via Reuters]

“In a situation where there is great disagreement and the Afghan political community has not taken steps to unite the negotiating table and have a common position, the talks will further weaken our position and further push the Taliban,” he said. he said.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a tweet: “All Afghans need to work together to achieve better political, economic and security results.

“Participants … agreed that understanding and working together are the only solutions.”

Since coming to power in mid-August, the Taliban have imposed a number of restrictions, many of them aimed at women, many of which have been banned from working outside the health and education sector.

High school girls have been confined to their homes because schools are not yet open. Last week, the Taliban promised that all girls could return to school by the end of March.

The Taliban, however, have stopped imposing a mandatory burqa ban when they ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s.

The Taliban have accused both rights groups and journalists of arresting them, in many cases arresting them.