Won’t talk to the Taliban

The Taliban are attending the UN climate meeting for the first time since they took power.

There they get the nob of several countries – including Sweden.

– We will of course not have any meetings with them, says climate minister Romina Pourmokhtari (L) to Aftonbladet.

On Monday, the COP29 climate summit kicked off in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

Then Abdul Qahar and Matiul Haq Khalis from Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government were there.

It is the first time since the regime took over power in the country in 2021 that the UN has chosen to invite them. But the UN countries have never formally recognized the Taliban government, citing severe restrictions on women’s rights.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he was snubbing the talks.

– I have no plans for that, he says Sky News.

Nor does Sweden’s Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari intend to hold any talks with the regime.

“We have noted this information. The Swedish line regarding the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is well known and very clear. We have no political contacts with them and will therefore of course not have any meetings with them,” she writes in a text message to Aftonbladet.

Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by climate change, with large floods as a result. In March, 300 people were killed.

They have tried to deal with the effects of global warming on their own, but at the same time claimed that disasters do not happen “if God does not want them to happen”.

– The fact that it is raining even though Google said it should be sunny is God’s way of saying “I am the boss”, says Professor Abdul Hadi Safi at Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled Academy of Sciences to Washington Post.