The Taliban Has Its 'Highest-level Meeting with an International Figure' to Date

Leah Barkoukis | September 07, 2021 10:30 AM

The Taliban is holding Americans and Afghan interpreters "hostage" at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport, according to GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, not allowing them to leave despite airplanes waiting.

"We know the reason why is because the Taliban want something in exchange," the lawmaker said. And that "something," he claimed, is "full recognition" from the U.S.

While that has not happened yet, critics are concerned that the United Nations is taking steps in that direction.

Martin Griffiths, the U.N.'s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, was criticized on Twitter after posting photos with Taliban leaders over the weekend.

I met with the leadership of the Taliban to reaffirm @UN’s commitment to deliver impartial humanitarian assistance & protection to millions in need in #Afghanistan. https://t.co/CK0bO7dKhY pic.twitter.com/akB6MxOarg
— Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) September 5, 2021

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch has been sounding the alarm that if the terror group gets U.N. recognition, "they inherit the Afghan seat on the U.N. Women's Rights Commission."

"The U.N. has a horrendous track record of putting human rights violators on human rights committees, so I don't put it past them to promote the Taliban," Haley said. "If a group that throws acid on schoolgirls and is known for rape, abduction, and forced marriage is placed on the Commission of the Status of Women, we should have nothing to do with it. It would be yet another disgrace for the U.N. That's why it's so important we make sure they never get a seat at the table."

Neuer also warned that the Taliban has taken note of how Syria's Assad has used "U.N. aid to prop up a murderous regime."

The Taliban will have learned from Assad how to use U.N. aid to prop up a murderous regime:https://t.co/TcvzpbUH2E
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 5, 2021