new york taliban insurgents have captured more than 50 of 370 districts in afghanistan since may the un special envoy said on tuesday warning that increased conflict posed a risk of insecurity to many other countriesdeborah lyons told the un security council that the announcement earlier this year that foreign troops would withdraw sent a seismic tremor through afghanistanthose districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals suggesting that the taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn lyons saidafter 20 years the united states has started to withdraw its remaining 2500 troops in afghanistan and aims to be completely out of the country by 11 september about 7000 nonus personnel from mainly nato countries along with australia new zealand and georgia are also planning to leave by that dateall of the major trends politics security the peace process the economy the humanitarian emergency and of course covid all of these trends are negative or stagnate lyons told the 15member security council the possible slide toward dire scenarios is undeniableusbacked afghan forces toppled the radical islamist taliban from power in late 2001 for refusing to hand over al qaeda leader osama bin laden after the september 11 2001 attacks on the united statesus president joe biden will meet at the white house with afghan president ashraf ghani and the chairman of afghanistans high council for national reconciliation abdullah abdullah on friday amid the surge in fightingwomens rights not negotiableus ambassador to the united nations linda thomasgreenfield said the decision to withdraw us troops was not taken lightlywe will use our full diplomatic economic and assistance toolkit to support the peaceful stable future the afghan people want and deserve and will continue to support the afghan national defence and security forces in securing their country she told the security counciltalks in qatar between the taliban and afghan government representatives on a political settlement have stalled lyons urged the security council with the support of regional countries to push the parties back to the negotiating tableafghan foreign minister mohammad haneef atmar said ghani had proposed in good faith a peace plan for a ceasefire power sharing and early electionsfor almost 10 months now we have had no serious engagement from the taliban for serious peace negotiation and no response to our proposed peace plan and absolutely no counter proposals he told the unsecurity councilbefore being ousted in 2001 the taliban imposed a harsh version of islamic rule that included barring girls from school and women from working outside their homes and prohibiting them from being in public without a male relativepreserving the rights of women remains a paramount concern and must not be used as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table lyons said mens rights are not negotiable womens rights are not negotiable human rights are not negotiable