AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi has appealed to the world for good relations but avoided making firm commitments on girls’ education, despite international demands to allow all Afghan children to go back to school.
Two months after the former Western-backed Government collapsed and the group swept into Kabul, the new Taliban administration has pushed to build relations with other countries to help stave off a catastrophic economic crisis.
“The international community need to start cooperating with us,” the Acting Foreign Minister said at an event organised by the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies on Monday.
“With this, we will be able to stop insecurity and at the same time with this, we will be able to engage positively with the world.”
But the Taliban has so far refused to give ground on allowing girls to return to high school, one of the key demands of the international community after a decision last month that schools above the sixth grade would only reopen for boys.
Muttaqi said the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate Government was moving carefully but had only been in power for a few weeks and could not be expected to complete reforms the international community had been unable to implement in 20 years.
“They had a lot of financial resources and they had a strong international backing and support but at the same time you are asking us to do all the reforms in two months?” he said.
- ALJAZEERA
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