US officials will meet with senior Taliban leaders for talks aimed at easing the evacuations of foreign citizens and at-risk Afghans from Afghanistan, a US official has said.
The focus of talks in Doha, Qatar, would be holding Afghanistan's Taliban leaders to commitments that they would allow Americans and other foreign nationals to leave Afghanistan.
These commitments also extended to Afghans who once worked for the US military or government and other Afghan allies, the official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak about the meetings.
The Taliban meeting will be first senior face-to-face talks since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Biden administration has fielded questions and complaints about the slow pace of US-facilitated evacuations from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since the last US forces and diplomats left the country at the end of August.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday that 105 US citizens and 95 green-card holders had left since then on flights facilitated by the US, with that number having not changed for more than a week.
US veterans and other individuals have helped others leave the country on charter flights, and some Americans and others have left across land borders.
That leaves dozens of American citizens still seeking to get out, according to the State Department, along with thousands of green-card holders and Afghans and family members believed eligible for US visas.
US officials have cited the difficulty of verifying flight manifests without any American officials on the ground in Afghanistan to help, along with other hold-ups.
Americans also intend to press the Taliban to observe the rights of women and girls, many of whom the Taliban are reportedly blocking from returning to jobs and classrooms, and of Afghans at large, and to form an inclusive government, the official said.
US officials will also encourage Taliban officials to give humanitarian agencies free access to areas in need amid the economic upheaval following the US departure and Taliban takeover.
The official stressed the session did not imply the US was recognising the Taliban as legitimate governors of the country.
Islamic State attack
Meanwhile, Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shia Muslim mosque in northern Afghanistan that killed at least 46 people and wounded dozens.
The claim, carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency and cited by the Site Intelligence Group — which monitors militant postings, came just hours after the blast tore through the packed mosque in the city of Kunduz.
The attack was the latest in a series of IS bombings and shootings that have targeted Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, as well as religious institutions and members of the country’s minority Shia.
The explosion tore through the mosque during noon prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week. It blew out windows, charred the ceiling and scattered debris and twisted metal across the floor.
The worshippers were Hazaras, who have long suffered from double discrimination as an ethnic minority and as followers of Shia Islam in a majority Sunni country.
IS has been behind a rise in attacks, including against the Taliban, since the departure of US and Nato forces from Afghanistan at the end of August.
IS and the Taliban, who seized control of the country with the exit of the foreign troops, are strategic rivals. IS militants have targeted Taliban positions and attempted to recruit members from their ranks.
In the past, the Taliban managed to contain the IS threat in tandem with US and Afghan air strikes. Without these, it remains unclear whether the Taliban can suppress what appears to be a growing IS footprint.
The militants, once confined to the east, have penetrated the capital of Kabul and other provinces with new attacks. – Agencies