ISLAMABAD: The US Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West on Sunday held a bilateral meeting with acting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his delegation. The meeting took place at the side-lines of the 17th extraordinary meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers, which took place here to discuss the looming threat of humanitarian and economic crises in the war-torn Afghanistan.

The top US diplomat exchanged views with the Afghan foreign ministers about and discussed with him the concerns of US as well as some western countries with regard human, women rights and girls’ education.

The Taliban government are facing immense pressure from the international community for what they claim not fulfilling their commitments with regard to human rights and ensuring more inclusivity.

The sources said that the Afghan foreign minister said that there is no restriction on girls’ education, however, due to winter vacations and lack of funds to pay the salaries of the teachers, there are some issues, which would be resolved gradually.

Muttaqi told the US special envoy that girls’ in some provinces have started going back to school, and in the next phase which is going to be start in march, things will further improve. Earlier, talking to media, Muttaqi said that due to economic issues, people are leaving the country which is not the fault of Taliban.

He said that the brain drain from Afghanistan is a major challenge which should be stopped, adding the country needed the capable people who have left the country under whatever circumstances to come back and play their role in reconstruction of their war-torn country.

He said that the interim Taliban government is ready to ensure all the security and safety to all those ready to invest in Afghanistan, adding the investment in Afghanistan is the only solution to cope with the challenges. To a question about presence of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), he said that no group will be allowed to use Afghan soil against any other country.

“The present day Afghanistan is not the Afghanistan of the past”, he said. Muttaqi also maintained that we strongly believe in protecting human rights. “We’ll fulfil all our commitments made with whosoever it is as we are responsible people and there is no need to be worried about anything else,” he maintained.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021