Norway’s hosting of the Taliban’s three-day stay is not without precedent. Several times before, the Norwegian government has acted as a mediator or facilitator in civil wars and international conflicts. The agreements between Israel and the PLO in the 1990s were also prepared in Oslo.
Western spokesmen emphasize that the meeting – in a hotel just outside Oslo – does not mean recognizing the Taliban government or establishing diplomatic ties. However, because something like a comprehensive peace agreement is not being discussed, but about practical matters, the bar is not set very high. That is why concrete agreements can be made quickly, especially when it comes to alleviating the needs of the Afghan population.
After all, the humanitarian crisis is so great that the international community cannot stand by and is almost forced to do business with the de facto authorities in Kabul. “We cannot continue to distribute aid outside the Taliban,” Kai Eide, former UN envoy to Afghanistan, told AFP. “We cannot collectively punish the Afghan people,” UN chief António Guterres said on Friday.
Humanitarian disaster
The trend towards cooperation with the de facto authorities is in line with what is already increasing practice in the field in Afghanistan. After the fall of Kabul, all foreign funds for Afghanistan were frozen. When it turned out that this caused the economy to collapse and a humanitarian disaster presented itself, the line was chosen that aid money can go to the country, but only through UN and aid organizations, outside the government.
In practice it turns out not to be that simple. Especially at the local level, aid organizations cannot avoid working together with local authorities and provincial governors. For example, since November 8, Acbar, the umbrella organization of Afghan and foreign aid organizations, has convened ’round tables’ with Taliban officials in Herat, Nangarhar and Kunduz provinces. The UN was also there.
It went well beyond expectations, says a person involved in Kabul. “Before, NGOs spoke individually with local commanders and were told: you just have to do as we say,” he says. ‘Now we had invited all their departments. They were willing to listen.’ The Taliban showed themselves to be lenient on several points.
It is also significant that the EU announced on Friday that it would establish a ‘physical presence’ in Kabul. It is not about reopening the EU embassy. However, the building will have a ‘minimal’ occupation of staff members of the EU delegation “to facilitate the delivery of aid and monitor the humanitarian situation,” said spokesman Peter Stano.
On Wednesday, Taliban Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund urged the world to recognize his government. He did so at a meeting in Kabul on the economic problems of the country, which was attended by representatives of 20 countries and the UN.
revenge
Moreover, the behavior of the Taliban government so far has not been such that the outside world is forced to keep distance from the new regime for moral-political reasons. Nor does the Taliban regime pose a threat to other countries.
Although there have been retaliations and arrests, the Taliban have not held ax day on a large scale since they took power. The leader of the Taliban delegation in Oslo, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, on Sunday called on all displaced Afghans to return to their country to help rebuild.
It is also remarkable that the Taliban spoke with Afghans in the diaspora in the Norwegian capital on Sunday: women’s activists, journalists and human rights defenders. In part these were people who had fled their country in a hurry in mid-August.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AP news agency last week that the government hopes to reopen all girls’ schools in the country by the end of March. That mainly depends on ‘capacity’. Separate classrooms for girls and boys are not enough, they have to be taught in separate buildings. “But we are not against education,” he said.
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