\nISLAMABAD, 7 Jun: Germany\u2019s top diplomat expressed concerns Tuesday during a visit to Pakistan that neighboring Afghanistan\u2019s new Taliban rulers are leading that country into a complete \u201cdownfall\u201d and bringing about incredible suffering and hunger.
\nAnnalena Baerbock spoke at a press conference with her Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, after discussing a range of issues with officials in Islamabad, including Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nSince seizin power in mid-August last year, the Taliban have imposed harsh edicts in Afghanistan, harking back to their repressive rule during the late 1990s. They have restricted freedoms and rights of women, who are now barred from going to school beyond the sixth grade, and minorities. The country has plunged into an unprecedented crisis, hurtling toward an economic meltdown as famine and hunger loom.
\nIn Islamabad, Baerbock urged that any economic aid to Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban should be coupled with improvements in the human rights situation.
\nThe Taliban, she said, are \u201cleading the country into a downfall\u201d and Afghan \u201cparents do not know how to feed their children. Girls are deprived of their right to education. Women are almost excluded from participation in public life. Dissenting voices are brutally suppressed. The economy is grinding to a halt.\u201d
\nThe Taliban are \u201cheading in the wrong direction,\u201d Baerbock said. \u201cAs long as they go down this path, there is no room for normalization and even less for recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of the country.\u201d
\nLast week, the U.N. Security Council called on Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban rulers to \u201cswiftly reverse\u201d their policies and practices restricting the human rights of women and girls.
\nBaerbock said Germany would continue helping those Afghans who wish to leave their country and praised Pakistan for facilitating their travel to Germany.
\n\u201cWe will continue to provide humanitarian aid and support the people who need it the most, especially women and girls who suffer more than anyone else under the Taliban\u2019s rule,\u201d she said.
\nSo far, more than 14,000 Afghans who were at risk from the Taliban had traveled to Germany through Pakistan, seeking to start a new life in safety and without fear.
\nLater on Tuesday, Germany\u2019s foreign ministry said Baerbock was cutting short her trip after testing positive for COVID-19 in Pakistan. She took a test after noticing she had lost her sense of taste at lunch, the ministry said on Twitter.
\nIt said that all further engagements on her trip were canceled, but didn\u2019t immediately give details on the timing of her return to Germany. Bhutto Zardari and those Pakistani officials who met with the German foreign minister were protectively isolating themselves at home, according to officials.
\nBhutto Zardari, standing next to his German counterpart, asked the Taliban rulers to honor the commitments they had made to the international community before and after seizing power. \u201cIt is our hope that the Afghan authorities would be responsive to the international community\u2019s expectations regarding inclusivity, respect for human rights for all Afghans, including women, and take effective actions against terrorism,\u201d he said.
\nBhutto Zardari said the international community must be actively engaged with Afghanistan\u2019s rulers to prevent a humanitarian crisis. \u201cWe also believe that the release of Afghanistan\u2019s financial assets would be crucial in stabilizing the economy and giving it sustainability,\u201d he said.
\nSince the Taliban seized power in August, Pakistan has been urging the United States and other countries to release upward of $10 billion in frozen Afghan assets. However, the U.S. has previously said some of that money is tied up in litigation involving the survivors and the families of victims of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaida while the group was being harbored in Afghanistan by the Taliban during their previous rule. (PTI)<\/p>\n
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ISLAMABAD, 7 Jun: Germany\u2019s top diplomat expressed concerns Tuesday during a visit to Pakistan that neighboring Afghanistan\u2019s new Taliban rulers are leading that country into a complete \u201cdownfall\u201d and bringing about incredible suffering and hunger. Annalena Baerbock spoke at a press conference with her Pakistani counterpart, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, after discussing a range of issues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-192524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}