UNITED NATIONS, United States, March 13, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The UN Security
Council called Friday for the “full, equal and meaningful participation of
women” in Afghanistan’s peace process, without mentioning recent US efforts
to end the conflict there.
“The members of the Security Council recognized that a sustainable peace
can be achieved only through a comprehensive and inclusive Afghan-led,
Afghan-owned peace process that aims at a permanent and comprehensive
ceasefire,” the council said in a statement.
The council “condemned in the strongest terms the alarming number of
attacks deliberately targeting civilians in Afghanistan.”
Without naming any particular group, the council said its members “also
expressed their deep concerns about the threat posed by terrorism to
Afghanistan and the region.”
“The members of the Security Council strongly encouraged parties to the
negotiations to pursue confidence-building measures, including reductions in
violence, and to continue to engage in good faith,” it said.
Washington recently submitted a draft peace agreement to the authorities
in Kabul and to the Taliban, including the creation of a “new inclusive
government,” according to a letter from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken
that was revealed by Afghan media.
In that plan, the United States proposed holding an inter-Afghan meeting
in Turkey and organizing, under the aegis of the United Nations, an
international ministerial gathering that would bring together the United
States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Iran to forge “a unitary approach”
on the future of Afghanistan.