Delegations participating in the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan called on the UN to convene an international donor conference, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president's special representative for Afghanistan and director of the foreign ministry's Second Asia department, told reporters on Wednesday.
"The final document will be adopted by all or most of the participants of the meeting," the diplomat said.
He noted that the general opinion of all participants was that the international community should help the Afghan people. The issues touched on making the Afghan government more inclusive, human rights, combating terrorism and drug-related crime, and guaranteeing the security of Afghanistan's neighbors.
"We must prevent the impending crisis, which some call a humanitarian catastrophe. To do this, the world community must unite and abandon preconceived approaches. I understand that not everyone likes the new government in Afghanistan, but by trying to punish the new government, they are, in fact, punishing the entire Afghan people. I don't think they deserve that," Kabulov said.
Asked whether the question of recognizing the new authorities in Afghanistan had been raised at the Moscow format meeting, he answered in the affirmative. "Of course, it was. Of course, it needs to be raised," Kabulov said.
"Certainly, this moment will come at some point, but it will come when, and this has been said by everyone to the Afghan delegation [at the Moscow format meeting], when it starts fulfilling most of the expectations of the international community, which concerns both human rights issues and inclusiveness [of the government]," Kabulov pointed out.
He also clarified that there are no deadlines for the formation of an inclusive Taliban government in Afghanistan.
The Moscow format was established in 2017 on the basis of a six-party consultation mechanism of special representatives of Russia, Afghanistan, India, Iran, China and Pakistan.
The Taliban launched a large-scale operation to take control of Afghanistan after the US announced in the spring of this year the decision to withdraw its armed forces from the country. On August 15, president of the Islamic republic Ashraf Ghani left the country and the radicals entered Kabul without a fight. On September 6, the movement announced that it had taken control of the entire Afghan territory and on September 7, it announced the composition of the provisional cabinet, whose legitimacy has not yet been recognized by any country.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS