UN ready for ‘heartbreaking’ decision to pull out of Afghanistan

Officials say it will leave in May if Taliban cannot be persuaded to let local women work for organisation

The UN is ready to take the heartbreaking" decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May if it cannot persuade the Taliban to let local women work for the organisation, officials have said.

The warning comes after UN officials spent months negotiating with the group's leaders in the hope of persuading them to make exceptions to a hardline edict this month barring local women from working for it, according to the head of the UN Development Programme (UNHP), Achim Steiner.