ISLAMABAD — Envoys from 57 Islamic
nations as well as observer delegations were meeting in
Pakistan Sunday for a
summit aimed at relieving the humanitarian crisis in neighboring
Afghanistan,
while testing diplomatic ties with its new Taliban rulers.
اضافة اعلان
The meeting of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation is the biggest major conference on Afghanistan since the US-backed
government fell in August.
After the Taliban's lightning return to
power, billions of dollars in aid and assets were frozen by the international
community, and the nation of 38 million now faces a bitter winter.
The
United Nations has repeatedly warned
that Afghanistan is on the brink of the world's worst humanitarian emergency
with a combined food, fuel and cash crisis.
On Sunday, Pakistan's capital was on
lockdown, ring-fenced with barbed wire barriers and shipping-container
roadblocks where police and soldiers stood guard.
Any aid pledges were set to be announced
Sunday evening.
Taliban foreign minister
Amir Khan Muttaqi
is among the delegates, alongside others from the United States, China, Russia,
the European Union and the United Nations.
Pakistani officials said 70 delegations were
taking part.
No nations have yet formally recognized the
Taliban government and diplomats face the delicate task of channeling aid to
the stricken Afghan economy without also propping up the hardline Islamists.
Pakistani Foreign Minister
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the meeting would speak "for the people of Afghanistan"
rather than "a particular group".
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates were the only three countries to recognize the previous Taliban
government of 1996 to 2001.
Qureshi said there was a difference between
"recognition and engagement" with the new order in
Kabul.
"Let us nudge them through persuasion,
through incentives, to move in the right direction," he told reporters
ahead of the OIC meeting.
"A policy of coercion and intimidation
did not work. If it had worked, we wouldn't have been in this situation."
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