UNITED NATIONS, August 24. /TASS/. The Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) has asked the UN to maintain its presence in Afghanistan, and the organization intends to continue operating in the republic, says UN special coordinator on humanitarian issues Ramiz Alakbarov.
"The Taliban urges us to stay, they want us to work," Alakbarov said. "We want and we will work in Afghanistan, because we have been working with them for 18 years as humanitarians. We help people that need our aid."
Commenting on preconditions for the restoration of the UN office’s full-scale operations, the official underscored the necessity to ensure security.
"Of course, those are conditions of safety, provision of immunity and privileges, which we must obtain as a UN organization for implementation of the humanitarian mandate," he explained. When we speak about further preconditions for our operation, normal, deep partnership with UN member states is always based on recognition of the principles of human rights, respect for them, on recognition of norms of the international law, and compliance with all groundwork documents. We will discuss all of that."
"Our main direction is the provision of humanitarian aid to the population in dire need. Further stages will be discussed depending on the development of the events," Alakbarov said.
The UN representative also touched upon the funding of the humanitarian office.
"At the beginning of this year, we requested $1.3 billion worth of funding, but we received slightly under 40% - about $400 million," he said. "Our funding goes to healthcare, provision of food, goods and emergency supplies. The situation in the region is far from being completely stable, but the humanitarian partners have access to 394 districts."
On August 15, Taliban (outlawed in Russia) militants entered the capital city of Kabul without fighting and took complete control over the city in a matter of hours. The President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani announced that he was leaving the country in order to prevent bloodshed. Vice-President Amrullah Saleh claimed that in the absence of the president he becomes acting president in accordance with the Constitution. He urged the republic to continue fighting the Taliban. Meanwhile, Western states are in the process of evacuating their citizens and embassy employees from the republic. Afghan citizens who collaborated with the coalitions, and their families are also being evacuated.