Mutlaq Al-Qahtani, special envoy of the Qatari foreign minister,
urged other countries to engage more deeply with the Taliban as
Afghanistan's de facto authority, while urging the Islamist
movement to act as a "responsible" administration and respect
the right of women to work and girls to attend school.
"We think this (recognition) is not a priority. What's more a
priority as we speak now is the humanitarian, is the education,
is free passage of passengers," Qahtani said at a global
security forum in Doha.
He said the only way forward was to offer the caretaker
administration "more collaboration, cooperation and assistance".
Almost two months after the former Western-backed government
collapsed and insurgent forces swept into Kabul, the Taliban
administration has pushed to build relations with other
countries to help stave off a catastrophic economic crisis.
But the Taliban have so far refused to give ground on girls'
education, considered one of the limited number of unambiguously
positive gains from the West's two decades of involvement in
Afghanistan.
Qatar, which is hosting talks between Taliban and Western
officials in which Mutlaq said he is participating, is seen as
one of the countries with influence over the movement.
Doha hosted the Taliban's political office which oversaw the
negotiations with the United States that eventually led to the
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August. It has
played a pivotal role in evacuation efforts.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous,
Editing by William Maclean)
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