The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has confirmed that more than a dozen countries will participate at the foreign ministerial level in the upcoming extraordinary session on the current Afghan situation.
Senior diplomats from permanent members of the UN Security Council, including the United States, will also attend the key OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) meeting in Islamabad on December 19.
The CFM session will be the largest international gathering on Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of Kabul in August, as it will bring together not only the 57 countries of the OIC, but also representatives from the P5, Germany, Japan, and international financial institutions.
The goal of the summit is to prevent imminent humanitarian crises and economic collapse in Afghanistan, which, according to the UN and other international relief agencies, is on the verge of humanitarian disaster due to its reliance on foreign help.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned the media on Thursday that it was a race against time ahead of the crucial summit, warning that abandoning Afghanistan would have catastrophic implications.
According to Qureshi, over 23 million Afghans are facing severe food scarcity, citing a UN report. He stated that ordinary Afghans have the option of dying or migrating. Qureshi said, “This is the type of circumstance we want to stay away from.”
Pakistan fears that the international world, notably the West, would abandon Afghanistan, resulting in a new cycle of bloodshed and instability, according to its own assessment.
According to Qureshi, such a scenario would result in a new flood of Afghan refugees, posing major issues not just for neighboring nations but also for the West.
The foreign minister expressed special concern about the Afghan Taliban government’s lack of access to the Afghan Central Bank’s assets. He added that the Afghans’ concerns were exacerbated by the lack of banking outlets.
After the Taliban took control of Kabul, the US froze $9.5 billion in Afghan foreign assets.
Pakistan, Russia, China, Qatar, and a few other countries were in favor of unfreezing Afghan assets, but the US has yet to show any signs of doing so.
Qureshi stated that the Afghan people should not be penalized if the world does not accept or approve of a particular political system. According to Qureshi, the heightened insecurity in Afghanistan would only encourage terrorist groups to resurface and constitute a threat to the region and beyond.
According to the foreign minister, 97 percent of Afghans would be poor by the end of 2022 as per a UNDP report. “This circumstance would put Afghanistan precisely where the international community sought to avoid in the first place,” he said.
In the meantime, Qureshi announced that the OIC’s extraordinary meeting will be divided into three segments. The opening and closing sessions will be open to the public, but the middle session will be closed to the public.
Pakistan is hopeful that the OIC summit will aid in the development of international consensus, and that the world will do more than make promises for the Afghan people.
