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A Taliban delegation will hold talks with Western authorities in Oslo next week on human rights and humanitarian aid, the first official visit to the West since they returned to power, the Norwegian and Taliban governments have said.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had invited Taliban representatives to Oslo from January 23 to January 25.
The Norwegian newspaper VG said that special representatives from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the European Union will take part. The ministry did not comment on the newspaper’s report.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt stressed that the visit was not “a legitimation or recognition of the Taliban. But in practice we need to talk to those who govern the country today.”
“We are deeply concerned about the dire situation in Afghanistan,” Huitfeldt said, noting that the economic and political situation in the country has created a “humanitarian disaster for millions of people” in the face of famine.
The Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will lead the Taliban delegation to Norway. It would be the first time the Taliban has traveled he took over the country in August their representatives held official meetings in Europe. He has previously traveled to Russia, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, China and Turkmenistan.
Afghan Culture and Information Minister Zabihullah Mujahid said Muttaqi hopes to hold separate meetings with the US delegation and bilateral talks with European representatives.
The rights of Afghan women and girls may be prominent in the talks, along with the West’s repeated call for Taliban administration to share power with Afghan ethnic and religious minority groups.
Deputy Minister of Culture Mujahid told The Associated Press on Saturday that the new Afghan authorities are aiming to open schools for girls and women in late March after the new year in Afghanistan.
Today it is the education of girls limited beyond the seventh grade, except in all 10 provinces. In the capital Kabul, private universities and institutes have continued to operate uninterrupted. Most are small, and the classes have always been separate.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said that the Taliban delegation will hold meetings with Afghans in Norway to include “women leaders, journalists and people working on human rights and humanitarian, economic, social and political issues, among others.”
Muttaqi is likely to press for the release of nearly $ 10 billion frozen by the Taliban from the United States and other Western countries.
Earlier this week, a Norwegian delegation visited Kabul for talks on the country’s precarious humanitarian situation, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
The Oslo Foreign Ministry said Afghanistan is experiencing drought, pandemics, economic collapse and the aftermath of years of conflict.
According to them, about 24 million people suffer from acute food insecurity and do not know how to get enough food. One million children have been reported to be starving to death.
In addition, the UN estimates that famine will affect more than half of the population in the winter and that 97 percent of the population may be below the poverty line this year.
Earlier in the day, the Taliban announced the arrest and arrest of a Taliban woman in an apartment in Kabul and the arrest of her three sisters and three sisters, the AP reported, citing a witness.
A Taliban statement allegedly blamed a recent women’s protest and said that the violation of Afghan values would not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Friday called on Taliban authorities to investigate the kidnapping of a female prison official who has been missing for more than three months.
“It has been more than three months since Alia Azizi disappeared and her family is still in the dark about her whereabouts. His alleged kidnapping took place in the context of the illegal arrest of former members of the government, journalists and various critics of the Taliban, “said Zaman Sultani, a South Asian researcher at Amnesty International.
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