UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan warned Tuesday that peace talks wont succeed unless escalating violence stops, and urged any peace agreement to reflect that half the population today was born after the 2001 defeat of the Taliban and saw women rise to positions of economic and political power.
Deborah Lyons told the U.N. Security Council that these Afghans are now the majority and deserve to have their voices heard during peace negotiations between the government and the Taliban, and to play an active and substantial role in Afghan society after a peace agreement is concluded.
The Taliban were ousted from power in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America. A peace deal that Washington brokered with the Taliban and signed in February 2020 led to talks in Qatar with the government that began last September.
Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to go to school, work outside the home…