Webinar report: Chasing Unicorn: Norway’s Taliban Diplomacy - 20 January 2023 Norway’s policy vis-à-vis Afghanistan

Mr Faiq and Ambassador Ghafoorzai both agreed that Norway has been trying to bridge the gaps and find some consensus on very critical issues and is one of the supporters of the development of civil society and women empowerment. [...] Are Taliban reliable? The foremost thing that the speakers urged is that those who are involved in the mediation with Taliban should understand the dynamics and political context of Afghanistan. [...] 3 Perhaps, one of the Muslim countries and maybe Taliban can trust to that and we e can start some back-channel for the facilitation of the peace process”. [...] Forugh added that “unfortunately when it comes to transparency, not just Norway, but the rest of the world that intended to practice transparency” and their constituent in the West, or the people of Afghanistan have little knowledge about that kind of terms they were setting with Taliban. [...] "If this duality of selectivism is not removed from dealing with Afghanistan, I think the people of Afghanistan will become more suspicious of the efforts of the international community in dealing with the Taliban”.