The Taliban, a jihadist terror group in charge of Afghanistan, confirmed this week that members of the group organizing the discussions had attended a number of sessions where they were reportedly discussing the threat of climate change.
The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, an organization that has lobbied for the lifting of sanctions against the Taliban to allow for” weather problems” investment, hosted the discussions, which reportedly lasted three weeks and gave Taliban extremists entry to” a wide range of their peers in the West”. The sessions ended on Monday.
The first of their type, in which Taliban extremists were given a platform to discuss climate change with UN people, were reported to have taken place both” face to face” and online.
The Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamist terror group with near ties to albert- Qaeda and related aggressive entities, has been the undisputed government of Afghanistan since August 15, 2021, when Taliban leaders stormed the nation’s capital, Kabul, and subsequently- President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, surrendering the government. The fall of Kabul marked the end of the 20- time war in Afghanistan, which began with the resignation of the Taliban in 2001, immediately after the September 11 albert- Qaeda problems. Leftist President Joe Biden made a decision to remove all American soldiers by May 1, 2021, prolonging the conflict and causing the Taliban to launch a swift battle to capture the state after years of negotiations to end the conflict and giving Afghanistan some form of legitimate authorities.
The Taliban’s return to power and the abandonment of sophisticated American defense technology in the country as a result of Biden’s policy, which finally fell into the hands of Taliban terrorists. Soon after Biden left the group, the Taliban held a festival to display the weapons in a display.
Afghan Taliban fighters patrol a street in Kabul on August 17, 2021 as the Taliban made the decision to retake control of the Afghan capital after their stunning invasion and a letter to government employees to return to work ( WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images ).
The United Nations does not understand the Taliban and has not given it the chair at the General Assembly or different venues reserved for the Afghan government, despite no other person or entity who has challenged its claim to be the country’s established government, fully the” Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.” Only a small number of mostly rogue nations – including Iran, Russia, and China – have recognized the Taliban as the “interim” government of Afghanistan. In December, China became the first nation to formally accept a Taliban ambassador to Beijing.
Platforms like those provided by the , Norwegian Afghanistan Committee are some of the few that are offered to Taliban leaders because they do not have direct access to United Nations facilities. In a press conference on Wednesday, the organization’s director, Terje Watterdal,  , told reporters that the meetings this week were the first in which Taliban jihadists” joined a parallel session, face- to- face and online, with a broad range of their counterparts in the West, since the change of government in August 2021″.
The Agence France- Presse ( AFP ) reported that the talks included “universities, diplomats, UN agencies, donors and grassroots members of Afghan society”, without elaborating on what “grassroots” representing” Afghan society” the Taliban allowed to participate. According to reports, Watterdal claimed that women were generously permitted to attend the meetings in order to “make sure we also have the women’s perspective on climate change.”
The Taliban is brutally oppressive against all women and girls, effectively preventing them from leaving their homes in 2021, preventing them from entering the workforce, and completely erasing them from society. Women who do not travel to Afghanistan without facing criminal consequences were prohibited by the Taliban from working for the UN in April 2023.
A Taliban fighter stands guard as a woman walks past in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 26, 2022. Recent Taliban decisions against Afghan women include those that place restrictions on attending universities and working for NGOs ( AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi ).
Watterdal, the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee leader, insisted that, despite the Taliban’s long history of human rights atrocities and ongoing violence against civilians, it was necessary for the world to “de- politicize” climate change.
The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee and The  joined on Wednesday to condemn international organizations for suspending 32 climate change projects in Afghanistan.
” When we are talking about collective action, Afghan ministries, universities, industry and the Afghan people must act. However, we as members of the international community must support Afghanistan in their efforts, according to a member of the Norwegian organization. Local media outlet Tolo News, which reported on the condemnation, did not specify if the Taliban had allowed women, either Afghans or international workers, to participate in the suspended climate projects.
Taliban leadership has repeatedly claimed that the alleged” climate crisis” is a priority for its , sharia tyranny. Less than a month after the Kabul takeover,  , Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a member of the Taliban’s Cultural Commission, told , Newsweek that Taliban terrorists were seeking international cooperation on the climate.
According to Balkhi,” we believe the world has a unique opportunity of rapprochement and coming together to address the challenges that are facing both us and the entire humanity,” and that” these challenges ranging from world security and climate change require the collective efforts of all.”
Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman at the time and the unofficial ambassador to the UN, also demanded significant international funding for alleged environmental projects that the United Nations had approved prior to Kabul’s fall in November 2021, claiming Afghanistan’s climate was “fragile.”
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Afghanistan has a fragile climate. Great work is required. Some of the Green Climate Fund’s funded climate change initiatives have already been approved.
UNDP, Afghan Aid, should fully resume work. This, on the one hand, will help change the climate— Suhail Shaheen. Ù…Øمد سهیل شاهین ( @suhailshaheen1 ) October 31, 2021
The , Kabul Times, a newspaper actively promoted by the Taliban leadership online, featured an article on Wednesday warning of” climate catastrophe” and citing the U. N.
The water and environmental crisis, which has become more complicated in recent years due to climate change, is one of the” severe security crises” that is typically left out of the scope of these discussions, the article claimed. Afghanistan is one of the nations that is one of the most affected by climate change, despite contributing only passingly to global greenhouse gas emissions.
The article also featured remarks made by a Taliban official,” Acting Minister of Economy Qari Din Mohammad Hanif,” who demanded that Afghans “fulfill their religious and national obligations regarding the protection of the environment on Earth Day.”
The Taliban has had few official contacts with the UN, but it has kept in touch with them on sensitive issues of mutual interest. In August of that year, senior Taliban officials in Qatar met with them, one of the first international officials to meet with Taliban leaders in 2021. This was David Beasley, the WFP’s head of the time. In November 2021, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed that several UN humanitarian organizations were operating in Afghanistan” with the support of the Taliban.”
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