Qatari PM meets Taliban supreme leader

KABUL – Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has held talks with Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhunzada.

According to an Al-Jazeera report, these talks took place on May 12 in the southern city of Kandahar.

Citing the state-run Qatar News Agency, Al-Jazeera reported that the visit took place in the context of facilitating relations between Afghanistan’s caretaker government and the international community.

This is very important development as this was the only time an international leader met Haibatullah.

The two sides also reportedly held talks on women’s rights and the reopening of schools. 

The CNN reported that Qatar briefed Washington about the meeting in a phone call the day after the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Al-Thani. 

American officials have met occasionally with Taliban representatives in the Qatari capital, Doha, since the US left Afghanistan in August 2021 amid the Taliban takeover of the country.

Quoting source an online news service for Afghanistan Khaama Press News Agency reported that Al Thani and Akhunzada also discussed efforts to remedy Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.

According to the U.N., nearly 75% of Afghanistan’s 40 million people need assistance, and the organization has warned that financing is running out.

The news agency further reported that Akhunzada highlighted “continued efforts on the ground” being made by the Taliban to combat terrorism, which is likely a reference to Kabul’s efforts to annihilate an ISIS offshoot.

In 2013, Qatar let the Taliban establish a political office in Doha. It helped their negotiations with the US, which resulted in the 2020 agreement for the withdrawal of the international force under US leadership that they had opposed for 20 years.

Qatar has long pushed the international community to adopt a “roadmap” outlining the steps the Taliban must take to obtain recognition, claiming that isolating Afghanistan could deteriorate regional security.