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Ahram Online
Leaders of the G20 held a virtual summit on Tuesday to discuss the humanitarian and security situation in Afghanistan following Taliban’s takeover.
Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, whose country holds the rotating G20 presidency, has been pushing to widen the global discussion on Afghanistan to include other countries including Russia and China.
It was not clear if all the leaders of the G20 economic group, which include the United States, EU, China, Turkey, Russia and Saudi Arabia among others, have joined Tuesday’s meeting. The summit was held behind closed doors; however, Draghi was scheduled to hold a press conference afterwards.
The hard-line Islamist Taliban returned to power in August, following the withdrawal of US troops after 20 years of war. Afghanistan’s economy remains in a perilous state with international aid cut-off, rising food prices and unemployment spiking.
Announcing the meeting last month, the Italian premier said it would address what he said was the risk of a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Afghanistan.
“Leaders would also look at measures the international community can take to stop Afghanistan from again becoming a hotbed of international terrorism”, the Italian PM stressed.
The Taliban regime, still yet to be recognised as a legitimate government by any other country, is itself facing a threat from the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), which launched series of deadly attacks in the country.
