Last update: May 02, 2023, 10:56 a.m. HST
Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (C) arrives to attend an inauguration ceremony for a 5,000-bed drug rehabilitation camp, at the Interior Ministry in Kabul on February 1, 2023. (AFP)
Taliban Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has been subject to a travel ban, assets freeze and arms embargo under Security Council sanctions
A United Nations Security Council committee has authorized Taliban Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi to travel to Pakistan this week to meet his Pakistani and Chinese counterparts.
The development comes after Pakistan’s UN mission requested an exemption for Muttaqi to travel between May 6 and May 9 “for a meeting with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China”, according to a report. AlJazeera.
The Afghan Foreign Minister is expected to meet Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. It is not yet known what the two ministers will discuss.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry had so far not commented on Muttaqi’s trip. Reports indicate that Pakistan would cover all costs associated with the trip.
Muttaqi has been subject to a travel ban, an assets freeze and an arms embargo under Security Council sanctions.
Last month, the UN Security Council committee agreed to allow Muttaqi to travel to Uzbekistan for a meeting of foreign ministers from countries neighboring Afghanistan to discuss security and stability issues. .
Chinese and Pakistani officials have both said in the past that they would host Taliban-ruled Afghanistan in the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Meanwhile, envoys from the United States, Russia, China and 20 other countries and organizations gathered in Qatar on Monday for talks on Afghanistan focusing on women’s rights under the Taliban administration.
Participating countries are China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Arabia Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain, the United States, Uzbekistan, the European Union and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
However, Taliban authorities were not invited to attend the two-day closed-door meeting in Doha, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Afghanistan is a key geographic route for trade and transit between South Asia and Central Asia and has billions of dollars in untapped mineral resources. The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces withdrew after 20 years of war.
Read all the latest news here
