Sohail Shaheen: The Islamic Emirate has not received any assistance to fight drugs
Afghan Voice Agency (AVA)-International Service: The Political Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced on Thursday the holding of the first meeting of the Counter-Narcotics Working Group, which is part of the measures following the third Doha meeting.
The organization said that the meeting is part of efforts to “interact more effectively” with the authorities of the Islamic Emirate on vital issues for the Afghan people.
UNAMA said in a statement that the formation of the working group stemmed from recommendations made in the 2023 independent assessment to the UN Security Council.
“The fight against drugs is a critical issue for Afghanistan, affecting rural communities as well as regional peace and stability,” Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of UNAMA, said after the online meeting.
UNAMA did not provide details about the participants in the meeting.
The move follows the third meeting of the Special Envoys for Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar, in June, where the fight against drugs was discussed as one of the key issues.
Habibullah Ahmadi, head of the Ministry of Interior’s Counter-Narcotics Division, confirmed to AMU that representatives from the Islamic Emirate’s Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs and Agriculture attended the first meeting of the working group, which is part of the follow-up to the third Doha meeting.
Suhail Shaheen, head of the Islamic Emirate's political office in Doha, also said that the working group will present a program to support the private sector and provide alternative livelihoods for farmers.
Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, the United States, Russia, China, Norway, the European Union, and experts from UN agencies such as UNAMA and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) also participated in the first meeting of the Working Group on Combating Narcotics in Afghanistan.
According to IRNA, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, Iran's Special Representative for Afghanistan Affairs, who participated in the meeting online with the Iranian delegation, stressed the need to pay attention to crises and other issues in combating narcotics, stating that the issue of narcotics is related to other issues, including political stability, the economic situation, livelihoods, and infrastructure development in Afghanistan.
He also stated that the solution to the Afghan problem lies in the countries of the region, and with the participation of the region and the utilization of the capabilities, capacities, and experiences of these countries, a coherent, comprehensive, and sustainable solution to the Afghan crisis must be achieved.
Kazemi Qomi also expressed his readiness to participate in advancing regionally-oriented plans and projects in Afghanistan, referring to his experiences of cooperation with various UN institutions and the organization's awareness of Iran's capabilities and capacities in various fields.
At the same time, noting that this is an intergovernmental meeting, he emphasized that the capacities of the countries should also be used to lead this meeting; a position that was also supported by the representative of Pakistan, and the Iranian and Pakistani delegations expressed their readiness to lead the meeting in order to advance the negotiations.
Representatives of Western countries at the meeting, including the United States and the European Union, emphasized the need for some Afghan political and civil activists to participate in the meeting so that, according to them, the participants could have a better picture of the achievements and progress as well as the shortcomings.
However, the Russian representative strongly opposed the Western view and accused the Western representatives, especially the United States, of trying to politicize technical issues in order to exert pressure and interfere in the region.
Russia emphasized that it would not allow the United States to use the Counter-Narcotics Working Group for its political purposes and argued that it was a technical and specialized working group and should not be politicized.
The Russian representative warned that if the Westerners continued to insist on their approach, it would not participate in the negotiations.
At the end of his report, the representative of the Islamic Emirate at the meeting once again referred to the recent UN report and criticized the position of this organization and Western countries, saying that Afghanistan had not received any assistance from the UN or other countries to combat drugs.
The representative of the Islamic Emirate also said that Afghanistan will not allow the United Nations and other parties to interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan under the pretext of advancing plans and projects.
At the end of the meeting, it was approved that the Counter-Narcotics Working Group in Afghanistan will continue its work by establishing three other specialized working groups, including the Counter-Supply and Law Enforcement and Police Cooperation Working Group, the Demand Reduction and Health Assistance Working Group, and the Alternative Livelihoods Working Group, which will be established in February 2025.
Ms. Otanbayeva, Head of UNAMA, called on countries to continue their bilateral consultations and discussions in this regard until the establishment of the sub-working groups in the coming winter and to prepare for the start of these working groups at the scheduled time.
The Doha 3 meeting was held on July 1 and 2 with the participation of special representatives of countries for Afghanistan. At that time, the UN stated that the purpose of the meeting was to "increase international interaction.
QR code