The situation in Afghanistan - United Nations Security Council Meeting (Full)

The United Nations presence in Afghanistan “will adapt to the security situation,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday. in a briefing to an emergency session of the Security Council.

“But above all, we will stay and deliver in support of the Afghan people in their hour of need,” Guterres said.

As desperate Afghans were trying to escape the Taliban and board planes, during chaotic scenes at Kabul airport on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for international unity on Afghanistan.

Guterres appealed for the Council to stand as one, and ensure that human rights are upheld, humanitarian aid continues, and that the country does not again become a platform for terrorism.

The Secretary-General noted that the international community is following the developments in Afghanistan “with a heavy heart and deep disquiet about what lies ahead.”

After seizing large swaths of territory in recent months, the Taliban on Sunday took control of the capital, Kabul, home to some six million people.

President Ashraf Ghani has fled the country, according to media reports, and desperate residents have been scrambling to the airport to get flights out.

“At this grave hour, I urge all parties, especially the Taliban, to exercise utmost restraint to protect lives and to ensure that humanitarian needs can be met,” said Guterres.

The UN chief called for the international community to uphold human rights, and voiced particular concern over mounting violations against women and girls. “It is essential that the hard-won rights of Afghan women and girls are protected,” he stressed.

“They are looking to the international community for support — the same international community that assured them that opportunities would be expanded, education would be guaranteed, freedoms would spread and rights would be secured.”

Afghanistan’s UN ambassador, Ghulam M. Isaczai, spoke of the fear that has gripped Kabul; people displaced from other provinces have flocked to the capital, viewed as the last refuge in the country.

He said “we are extremely concerned about the Taliban not honoring their promises and commitments made in their statements in Doha and at other international forums. We witnessed time and again how the Taliban have broken their promises and commitments in the past. We have seen gruesome images of Taliban mass executions of military personnel and target killing of civilians and Kandahar and other big cities.”

Isaczai urged the Council to “call on the Taliban to fully respect the general amnesty offered by them. Cease target killing and revenge attacks and abide by international humanitarian laws. Urge that no public institutions, and service delivery and infrastructure, be demolished, including works of arts in museums and media institutions.”

US ambassador at the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, reiterated the statement by the US President “that any action that put us personnel or our mission at risk will be met with a swift and strong military response.”

She also said that the United States “promises to be generous, and resettling Afghans in our own country, and I'm heartened by the pledges we've seen from other nations to do the same. We need to all do more, and the time to step up is now.”

Irish Permanent Representative Geraldine Byrne Nason spoke directly to the women of Afghanistan and said to them “we hear you, and we hear your pleas to the international community at this dark time. The fear, indignation and sense of betrayal you feel is understood. It is righteous.’

Nason called on the Security Council to “stand with the women of Afghanistan, their rights and their future participation in Afghan society cannot be sacrificed. This is our shared responsibility at this table. It must be our shared priority also. All of us around the table can and should agree that as a non-negotiable principle in all discussions the rights of women in Afghanistan must be protected. This is the future of Afghanistan,” she said.

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