Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers won backing from 10 regional powers at talks in Moscow on Wednesday for the idea of a United Nations donor conference to help the country stave off economic collapse and a humanitarian catastrophe.
Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Iran and five formerly Soviet Central Asian states joined the Taliban in calling for the U.N. to convene such a conference as soon as possible to help rebuild the country.
Washington chose not to attend the talks, citing technical reasons, but has said it may join future rounds. The Taliban's resurgence has stirred international fears of a return to their hardline form of Islamist rule in the 1990s, when they hosted Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda movement and carried out egregious human rights violations, including public stonings and the marginalisation of women at work and in schools.
Abdul Salam Hanafi, the deputy prime minister who led the delegation, said: "Isolating Afghanistan is in no one's interests."
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