Ireland did not take part in talks with Taliban — justice minister

Jim O’Callaghan confirms controversial meeting with Afghanistan's extremist leadership took place under auspices of previous EU presidency

Taliban fighters taking control of the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in  Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 18, 2021. File picture: Rahmat Gul/AP

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan has confirmed that the Government did not attend a controversial EU meeting with the Taliban, amid accusations that those present risked normalising a brutal regime.

The meeting sparked fierce backlash, with campaigners warning that the June talks between EU officials and a Taliban delegation in Brussels sent the wrong message to a regime that has banned girls from school beyond the sixth grade and sought to erase women from public life, while its ranks include two leaders accused of crimes against humanity.