Taliban’s new government wants to address at the 76th United Nations General Assembly and represent the country on the world stage.
According to media outlets, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres requesting to participate in the U.N. gathering of world leaders’ 76th General Debate, which is currently taking place.
The letter was sent to UN headquarters in New York by the Foreign Ministry of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” according to the UN.
Muttaqi said in the letter that former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani was “ousted” as of Aug. 15 and that countries across the world “no longer recognize him as president,” and therefore Isaczai no longer represents Afghanistan, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
The Taliban letter also indicates the group wants to replace Afghanistan’s UN envoy with its own spokesman Suhail Shaheen. It argues the current permanent representative for Afghanistan at the UN, Ghulam Isaczai, no longer represents the country and his mission is over.
After the withdrawal of NATO and US troops, the Taliban seized power of Afghanistan last month and re-established its “Islamic Emirate” after nearly 20 years.
The UN Secretariat has forwarded the letter to the credentials committee for consideration.
The committee is made up of representatives of nine countries – the US, Russia, China, Sweden, Namibia, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Sierra Leone and Chile – and has the power to decide which representatives and therefore which leaders of states are recognized at the UN, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
“It’s not the UN that is recognizing the governments, it’s member states doing that,” he said.
There have been cases where a country’s UN envoy is not affiliated with the country’s rulers.
It was not initially clear who would speak on behalf of Afghanistan at the UN debate, which is running until next Monday.
During the Taliban’s rule between 1996 and 2001, the UN had refused to recognize its government. Instead, it gave Afghanistan’s seat to the previous government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The Taliban has said it wants international recognition and financial help to rebuild the war-battered country, but the makeup of the new Taliban government poses a dilemma for the UN.
Several of the interim ministers are on the UN’s blacklist of international “terrorists and funders of terrorism”.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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