AFP
EU officials meet Taliban in Doha
The EU has announced one billion euros in humanitarian aid for the people of Afghanistan. The money should help “avert a major humanitarian and socio-economic collapse”, Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday. The announcement came as a special G20 summit discussed the humanitarian situation and countering extremist violence in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, EU representatives met with the Taliban in Doha.
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The aid money comes on top of 300 million euros in humanitarian aid previously pledged by the EU. 250 million euros is to flow into the country as direct aid. The EU says the rest will be distributed to Afghanistan’s neighbours, which are taking in people fleeing Taliban rule.
“The Afghan people must not pay the price for what the Taliban have done. That’s why the support package is aimed at the Afghan people and the country’s neighbors who were the first to help them,” von der Leyen said during the G20 group’s virtual leaders’ summit.
The Afghan people have been the first to be helped by the Taliban.
Meanwhile, EU representatives met in Doha for talks with the Taliban, a reporter told AFP news agency. According to EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali, the meeting was to discuss the free movement of those seeking to leave Afghanistan, access to humanitarian aid for the country, respect for women’s rights and security issues.
The meeting was expected to take place in Doha.
The meeting was an “informal exchange” but did “not constitute recognition of the ‘interim government'” in the Hindu Kush, Massrali stressed. US representatives also attended the talks in Doha, according to her. Massrali gave no further details on the number or functions of the EU delegates.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell had said ahead of Tuesday’s talks that the EU wanted to step up its direct aid to the Afghan people to avert a “collapse”. “We cannot ‘wait and see what happens’. We have to act, and we have to act quickly,” he urged.
The international community currently faces the difficult task of providing much-needed aid to Afghans without supporting Taliban rule. German representatives had already met for talks with senior Taliban officials in Doha on Monday. Earlier, U.S. and Taliban representatives met face-to-face in Doha over the weekend for the first time since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Taliban had returned to power in August some 20 years after the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan. The Islamists have since been seeking international recognition for their government as well as humanitarian aid to prevent a famine in the country, which depends on foreign development funds.
by KARIM JAAFAR