KABUL – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has attempted to halt the bloody competition by facilitating conditions for internal interaction between the Taliban movement and the armed opposition, and externally by reducing international and regional competition and initiating engagement with the Taliban, who have governed Afghanistan since 2021.
Guterres aims to find a lasting regional solution for peace through a new roadmap for Afghanistan, encouraging the Taliban to accept an inclusive and ethnically diverse government that would enable Afghan currents to participate in the political process. The importance of the roadmap will become more evident when considering the reality of the Taliban and its hierarchical structure in governance.
Over the past two years, neither the international community nor the United Nations managed to provide an independent and accurate assessment of the situation in Afghanistan. Therefore, Guterres commissioned the Turkish diplomat Ferydoun Sinirlioğlu to report on the country’s security and political conditions.
Political researcher Hekmat Jalil told Al Jazeera Net, “Sinirlioğlu’s appointment confirms that the Secretary-General wants insights into the hidden aspects of the current situation in the country. Sinirlioğlu began his work by drafting his report directly and visited Afghanistan several times, meeting with officials in the Afghan government and the former president Hamid Karzai. This report will serve as the United Nations’ roadmap in the country.”
Turkish diplomat Ferydoun Sinirlioğlu (left) met with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai (right).
Positivity
Reports indicate that Sinirlioğlu wished to meet with the leader of the Taliban, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, but his request was denied. He did meet with the Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and urged him to remove the obstacles causing a rift in relations between Afghanistan and the international community.
Afghan affairs experts believe that the Turkish diplomat’s report could predict Afghanistan’s future, as it clarifies the United Nations’ broad lines. Undoubtedly, the nature of the conversations and the thinking of the main Taliban officials will be crucial in determining the country’s future.
Abdul Karim Khurram, director of the office of the former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, told Al Jazeera Net, “I see the UN’s new roadmap as positive and in Afghanistan’s favor. Its most important aspect is reintegrating the country into the international community, building relations with countries, lifting sanctions on banks, but Afghans must play a bigger role.”
Sinirlioğlu met with key officials in the Taliban movement, understood their thought processes, and also met with government opponents outside Afghanistan, listening to their concerns. His report could outline the United Nations’ and international community’s mechanism for future engagement with the Taliban.
This report has garnered wide-ranging responses that can be classified into three categories:
- The stance of the current Afghan government led by the Taliban movement.
- The position of the currents opposing the Afghan government.
- The opinion of experts and those interested in Afghan affairs.
Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani (right) met with Sinirlioğlu after the Taliban leader refused the meeting.
Welcome
The Taliban movement has implicitly welcomed Sinirlioğlu’s report, with reservations on appointing a UN official for Afghan reconciliation. Taliban opponents explicitly criticized it, considering it an attempt to whitewash the movement internationally and regionally.
However, experts view the roadmap as a step forward in understanding the current situation in Afghanistan. Its importance lies in several points they consider fundamental:
- Guterres attempting to solidify the UN’s credibility as an independent organization maintaining global peace.
- His attempt to present his report based on ground realities and find a suitable roadmap to resolve the Afghan crisis.
- His endeavour to outline a roadmap for solving the Afghan crisis internationally and regionally.
- His effort to provide a context for the international community’s relationship with the Taliban, encouraging the movement to accept minimum international standards, respect human rights, ease restrictions on women, and allow for their social and educational rights, and to inform the world about the challenging and ideologically tight situation that the Taliban itself is suffering from.
- His attempts to alert the Security Council to the existing gap in the Taliban’s leadership, where the Kandahar wing is hawkish, and the Kabul wing is more realistic and ready to engage with the international community.
The points contained in the UN’s roadmap include:
- The UN’s attempt to classify the Afghan crisis as a regional problem.
- The provision of aid to the Afghan people, urging the international community to increase and continue it.
- Forming an inclusive government.
- Drafting a new constitution.
- Beginning a genuine dialogue between Afghan factions leading to a political solution.
- Laying the groundwork for interaction with the international community and recognition of the Taliban.
Afghan affairs experts observe that the UN has been dealing with the Afghan file for 45 years but has failed to find a lasting peace solution in the country. The Afghan people are well aware of how the UN representative Benon Sevan failed in the Geneva negotiations following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 and of the former envoy Lakhdar Brahimi’s failure at the Bonn Conference after the US invasion of Afghanistan. They also know that externally imported solutions have not benefited Afghans during four decades of conflict because they served others’ interests and not Afghans.
Leader of the Afghan Islamic Party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (right) and Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (from Hekmatyar’s office)
Internal Solution
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Afghan Islamic Party, told Al Jazeera Net, “Historical experiences have proven that the UN, in its current structure, is incapable of solving the Afghan crisis and is not qualified to do so. It has not resolved any complex problem at a global level. The Afghan crisis cannot be resolved by negotiations outside the country.”
Hekmatyar stressed, “The fundamental solution is for Afghans to sit down without preconditions at the negotiation table to solve their crisis without foreign mediation.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry called for a greater role for Afghanistan’s neighboring countries in peacekeeping. Tehran presented its roadmap concerning the Afghan crisis, highlighting the following:
- The necessity of resolving the crisis through dialogue and paving the way for Kabul’s reintegration into the international community.
- The devastating consequences that failure in resolving the crisis would have on international peace and security, something that the current state of Afghanistan cannot afford.
- Afghanistan’s gateway to the international community is through its regional environment and neighbors. Establishing a regional contact group is a fundamental step towards achieving desired results.
- Opening new files without resolving past issues will not solve the Afghan problem.
Afghan affairs experts believe that this roadmap requires in-depth work, approval from the neighboring countries, China, and Russia, and that Iran alone cannot play a role in the Afghan file for several reasons, the most important being the trust between the two countries.
A source within the Afghan Foreign Ministry clarified to Al Jazeera Net, “The current government is cautious about the UN’s announced roadmap, let alone the Iranian one; Tehran is seeking a role for itself in the Afghan file, supports the UN’s roadmap in general, and asks for a role for Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, nothing more. It is not as comprehensive as the UN’s roadmap.”
