The Taliban ask to speak before the UN General Assembly

The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has asked to address the international community and world leaders by speaking at the United Nations General Assembly held this week in New York.

The authorities of the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate have presented this request through a letter signed by their Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi, sent this Monday to the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, to which the agency had access the next day. of Reuters news.

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Guterres' spokesman, Farhan Haq, has confirmed having received Muttaqi's letter, in which the Taliban also reported the appointment of their spokesperson in Doha (Qatar), Suhail Shaheen, as his country's new ambassador to the United Nations.

The letter disavows Ghulam Isaczai, the UN representative of the previous Afghan government, overthrown on August 15, who, according to the letter, "no longer represents Afghanistan."

However, Haq reported that the Afghan diplomatic representative to the organization, Isaczai, had in turn sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary General detailing the list of members of the Afghan delegation for the session of the General Assembly, which indicates his intention to continue representing his country before the international organization. Both letters, that of the Taliban and that of the legation of the previous authorities of the country, have been sent to the UN Accreditation Committee to decide on who should represent Afghanistan.

The Taliban are unlikely to reach their goal of obtaining such accreditation because, to begin with, the committee in charge of granting it is not expected to meet before next Monday, when the annual high-level meeting of the UN will conclude.

This committee traditionally meets in October or November to evaluate accreditation applications from member countries, before presenting a report for approval by the General Assembly before the end of the year.

Even if that meeting takes place in advance, the chances of the United Nations accrediting a regime that has not been recognized by any state in the world seem nil, since the committee and the General Assembly tend to act by consensus on the issues. accreditations.

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Nine members sit on that UN committee, including China and Russia, countries that have maintained contact with the fundamentalist militia and shown a certain inclination to recognize their government.

However, another of the seats on that commission corresponds to a representative of the United States, which further removes, if possible, the possibility that the demand of the Taliban will be satisfied.

If, against these forecasts, the UN accepted the fundamentalists' request and accredited its ambassador, the Taliban would achieve diplomatic success in their quest for international recognition. This aspect is vital, since the unlocking of international aid funds depends in part on this recognition, which, in the last 20 years, have propped up the country's fragile economy, to constitute in 2020 more than 40% of the Afghan GDP.

The organization's own secretary general, Guterres, had declared, already before receiving the fundamentalists' letter, that the Taliban's desire for their government to obtain international recognition is the only lever that other countries have to pressure them in favor of a inclusive government and for the respect of human rights, especially of women and girls. So far the Taliban have not accompanied their conciliatory speech with deeds, especially with regard to the Afghans. In the long list of members of its Executive, announced on September 7, there is no woman.

Until the Accreditation Committee makes a decision, the former Afghan ambassador, Ghulam Isaczai, will remain in his post, according to the General Assembly rules. In fact, this diplomat is scheduled to speak on the last day of the meeting, September 27. However, the letter from the Taliban regime casts a shadow of doubt on this intervention, as it is not clear if any of the member states can object that the until now representative of Afghanistan no longer has the right to address the UN General Assembly. .

When the Taliban last ruled, between 1996 and 2001, the ambassador of the Afghan government that they overthrew remained the representative to the United Nations, despite the fact that the fundamentalist dictatorship also requested the accreditation of an ambassador, creating a situation reminiscent of the one that now it is raised again.

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