US envoys meet Taliban officials for the first time in two years

Taliban officials have met United States envoys for the first time since the movement’s return to power in Afghanistan nearly two years ago.

US special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West and US envoy for Afghan women and human rights Rina Amiri met a Taliban delegation headed by the militant group’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Following two days of bilateral talks in Qatar, the state department said the US was open for technical talks on stabilising the economy and tackling jihadi groups still operating in the country.

While noting that the Taliban ban on opium poppy cultivation had been effective, the state department expressed “grave concern” about detentions, media suppression and the “deteriorating” human rights situation “for women, girls and vulnerable communities”.

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Shia Muslims and members of Asian minorities face discrimination from the dominant Sunni, ethnic Persian Pashtun Taliban.

Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balhi said the sides had discussed confidence-building measures, including releasing funds frozen in foreign banks, lifting travel bans on Taliban leaders and ending economic sanctions.

The Taliban demand access to $9 billion (€8.2 billion) in Afghanistan’s external deposits including the entire $7 billion held in the US federal bank of New York. Half of this sum was deposited by the Biden administration in a Swiss-based humanitarian aid trust.

The talks coincided with the deadline for shuttering banned women’s hair and beauty salons, which the Taliban regard as un-Islamic, and the public burning of musical instruments in the western Herat province.

The incinerated items included a guitar, a harmonium, a drum and amplifiers and speakers confiscated from wedding parties. A Taliban vice and virtue ministry spokesman said music would lead “youth to go astray”.

A bonfire of instruments also took place last month, suggesting that the Taliban seek to restore their previous total ban on music from gatherings, television and radio.

The Taliban resumed rule in August 2021 after the US troop withdrawal and collapse of the Western-backed secular government which, over two decades, had introduced political, economic and social reforms. These reversed ultraconservative policies the Taliban adopted between 1996-2001 during their initial reign over Afghanistan.

Since Afghanistan reverted to a Taliban regime, the movement has restricted female education to sixth grade level, barred women from employment and public spaces and imposed retrograde sociocultural restrictions on the entire society, eliciting condemnation from Western and Muslim majority countries.

These actions have isolated Afghanistan and denied the Taliban government international diplomatic recognition.

According to the UN Development Programme, Afghanistan’s economic output has shrunk by more than 20 per cent since the Taliban took power, and 85 per cent of Afghans live in poverty.

Some 23 million of the country’s 40 million people depend on assistance from the World Food Programme. The UN has received pledges of $4.5 billion in donations for this year.