A recent meeting led by the United Nations in Qatar with the Taliban focused on increasing engagement with Afghanistan but did not signify a recognition of their government, according to a U.N. official. The gathering in Doha included envoys from around two dozen countries and marked the first time that representatives of the Afghan Taliban administration participated in a U.N.-sponsored meeting.
The Taliban had not been invited to the initial meeting, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres revealed that they had set unacceptable conditions for attending a previous meeting in February. These conditions included demands to exclude Afghan civil society members from the talks and to be treated as the legitimate rulers of the country.
