Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held talks on the phone with United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan on Tuesday and with Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Wednesday.
The two ministers discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The ministry said Çavuşoğlu and Sheikh Mohammed spoke about the “raids” at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday. They also discussed the Taliban’s ban on access to education for girls and shared concerns about the exclusion of women from national and international civil society institutions and humanitarian organizations.
Çavuşoğlu reiterated Türkiye’s call for the reversal of the ban on education in Afghanistan and highlighted the importance of synchronized efforts, particularly through the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on resolving the issue.
Meanwhile, Sheikh Mohammed emphasized that the ban on girls’ education and barring women from nongovernmental organization (NGO) work violated basic human rights. He said Islam attached importance to women, provided them with privileges and protected their rights. He underlined the importance of the need to protect women’s rights and full and equal access for women and girls for access to public life.
The two ministers also reiterated their condemnation of an Israeli minister’s raid into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. They stressed the importance of cooperation against unacceptable acts toward religious sites and of protecting the status of religious sites in Jerusalem.
They highlighted the need for full protection of Al-Aqsa and a halt to serious and provocative violations toward it. They called upon Israeli authorities to fulfill their responsibility to reduce escalation and instability in the region.
In a call with Sheikh Mohammed, both ministers repeated their denunciation of Al-Aqsa "provocation." The two top diplomats also voiced their concern about the Taliban's education and work ban on Afghan girls and women, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Çavuşoğlu also "congratulated his counterpart for the success of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar."
