Taliban wants to take part in UN meeting

Ground Report | New Delhi: Taliban wants to take part in UN meeting; The Afghan Taliban has expressed a desire to address world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York and has nominated Doha-based spokesman Sohail Shaheen as Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations.

Taliban wants to take part in UN meeting

Amir Khan Muttaqi has written a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting him to represent Afghanistan in the 76th General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly currently underway in New York. The UN said the letter was sent to the organization's headquarters in New York by the Foreign Ministry of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".

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In the letter, the Taliban argued that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been "removed" and that other countries no longer recognize him as head of state. It has also been indicated in the letter that the Taliban wants to remove Afghanistan's ambassador to the United Nations and send its spokesman Suhail Shaheen there.

question of recognition

The Taliban say current ambassador Ghulam Isakzai no longer represents the country and that his mission is over. The US, Germany, and many other nations now see the Taliban as the de facto ruler of Afghanistan but have not yet recognized it as a legitimate government.

The UN Secretariat has sent the Taliban letter to the Identity Committee for consideration. The committee has representatives from nine countries, including the US, Russia, China, Sweden, Namibia, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Sierra Leone and Chile.

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UN spokesman Farhan Haq said that this committee has the power to decide which leader and which ambassador should be recognized to represent any country.

who is representative of afghanistan

Haq also said, "It is not that the United Nations is recognizing governments, that is what its member states are doing." There have been cases in the past when the ambassador of a country to the United Nations has not been associated with the rulers of that country.

For example, Afghanistan was controlled by the Taliban from the mid-1990s to 2001, but at that time the country was represented at the United Nations by ambassadors of the previous government because the international community did not recognize the Taliban. At present, the general debate at the United Nations will run till September 27, but it is not yet clear who will participate in the debate on behalf of Afghanistan. 

When the Taliban last overthrew the Afghan government between 1996 and 2001, the deposed government's ambassador was the UN representative, as the credentials committee postponed its decision on rival claims at the meeting.

According to the report of the committee, "this decision has been postponed because the current representatives of Afghanistan are recognized in the United Nations and will continue to participate in the work of the General Assembly."

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