Concerns grow over increased global ties with Taliban in Afghanistan

The UN described Taliban-run Afghanistan as a ‘human rights graveyard’. Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images

The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses.

Five years after the Taliban took power, an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare.