Taliban attends UN meeting in Qatar on Afghanistan, women excluded [Video]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan –

A Taliban delegation on Sunday attended a United Nations-led meeting in Qatar on Afghanistan after organizers said women would be excluded from the gathering.

The two-day meeting is the third UN-sponsored gathering on the Afghan crisis in the Qatari capital of Doha

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban government who leads its delegation, wrote on social media platform X that the delegation met with representatives from countries including Russia, India and Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the meeting.

The Taliban were not invited to the first meeting, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said they set unacceptable conditions for attending the second one in February, including demands that Afghan civil society members be excluded from the talks and that the Taliban be treated as the country’s legitimate rulers.

The Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their pullout from …