Top officials from the United Kingdom held talks with the Taliban in Kabul on Friday about the dire humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
The British Foreign Office spokesperson informed reporters that British delegation includes Nick Dyer, the UK’s Special Envoy for Famine Prevention and Humanitarian Affairs, Hugo Shorter, Charge d’Affaires ad Interim of the UK Mission to Afghanistan and Hester Waddams, Deputy Head of Mission and Political Counsellor, UK Mission to Afghanistan.
They held meetings with senior Taliban officials including Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi and Abdul Haq Wasiq.
Talking with the reporters, a British Foreign Office spokesperson said, “As well as discussing the dire humanitarian situation, officials made clear to the Taliban the UK’s serious concerns about human rights, including those of women, girls and minorities and the treatment of women’s rights activists.”
Separately, in a Twitter post, Hugo Shorter said both sides discussed the humanitarian crisis, terrorism, and the UK’s serious concerns on the human rights situation in the country, including those of women, girls and minorities.
“We underlined that the negative trend, including the lengthy detention of female activists, reprisals and extra-judicial killings is deeply concerning. We stressed that all girls should return to school in the spring,” he added.
Afghanistan, a country strategically located in South Asia has been seeing instability since the last 40 years — a period that started with an invasion by the erstwhile Soviet Union in the late 1970s and ended with the withdrawal of the United States led NATO troops on August 31.