The Taliban is eager for international recognition

Representatives of the Taliban movement have appealed to the United Nations (UN) with a request to speak at the high-level week of the General Assembly.

"On September 20, the Secretary-General received a letter entitled ‘The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, signed by ‘Amir Khan Muttaqi’ as the ‘Minister of Foreign Affairs’, with a request to participate in the ‘76th session of the UN General Assembly on September 21-27’," the official representative of the UN Secretary-General said.

According to him, the letter was sent to the members of the accreditation committee of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly. The Taliban also reported that the previous permanent representative of Afghanistan, Ghulam Isaczai, no longer represents the country in the UN and that a new representative has been appointed – Mohammad Suhail Shaheen. Nevertheless, it is Isaczai who should speak at the Assembly – the diplomat has already sent a corresponding message to the UN.

According to experts, at this stage, the actions of the Taliban are initiated by the fact that earlier UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated the need to make a number of exceptions to the sanctions against the Taliban in order to "avoid the collapse of the Afghan economy and create conditions for the effective distribution of humanitarian aid”.

According to him, states should make exceptions "for practical reasons”. Later, Kabul's request is supposed to be considered by the UN Accreditation Committee, which includes Russia, China, the USA, Sweden, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Chile, Bhutan and the Bahamas.

Many understand that it is unlikely that the Taliban will be given the UN rostrum due to the absence of a factor of their international recognition, which is impossible (also according to a formal basis) before the final formation of the Cabinet of Ministers, which may take several months. The Ministers appointed earlier by the Interim Government are Acting ones.

However, theoretically there is another option: to put the issue to the vote of the General Assembly. But its implementation is also unlikely, although some experts do not rule out that representatives of the movement may join the session as so-called "invited people", which does not contradict the UN Charter.

The new authorities in Kabul are well aware of this, but their steps are deliberate. In this way, they seek to mark their appearance in big politics and through this stimulate the process of their international recognition or at least the lifting of some of the sanctions imposed against them. On the other hand, they seek to strengthen their position inside Afghanistan itself, where the internal political struggle is escalating.

Finally, the Taliban demonstrate their intentions to play their "card" among the members of the UN Security Council, some members of which, in particular, China, are ready to establish cooperation with Kabul. By the way, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Information of the Interim Government of Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that Kabul had asked Russia to help with the lifting of UN sanctions and the reconstruction of the country.

Commenting on the situation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said that "to begin with, the international community will have to solve the main issue - the coordination of coordinated actions against Afghanistan, especially the humanitarian dimension”.

At the same time, Moscow opposes the artificial appointment of specific deadlines for the formation of an inclusive (that is, including all local political forces) government by the Taliban.

As for another member of the UN Security Council, the United States, at this stage they oppose the international recognition of the Taliban, and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan clarified that Islamabad "will decide on the recognition of the Taliban government together with other neighbouring countries of Afghanistan”.

As it's known, 33 people were included in the new government of Afghanistan, and almost all of them turned out to be ethnic Pashtuns. Only four of them represent other nationalities (three Tajiks and one Uzbek), and even then they all somehow collaborated with the movement in the past. In this regard, Imran Khan believes that the main requirements for Kabul are "the formation of an inclusive government, respect for human rights and guarantees that Afghanistan will not become a haven for terrorists”.

The Taliban responds that "all the concerns expressed by the international community regarding the new Afghan authorities are solvable”, but points out that the conditions under which the international community is ready to recognise the new government of Afghanistan are "not suitable for them”, although Kabul is busy searching and defining for itself the space for international and domestic manoeuvring.

On the one hand, the Taliban are trying to break through the system of international isolation being built against them. There have been reports that they are already holding meetings with special representatives of Russia, China and Pakistan, where the issue of recognition of the new government is being discussed. Moreover, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and well-known politician Abdullah Abdullah are involved in this process.

On the other hand, there is a search for such a composition of the so-called inclusive government, which "would not dilute the basic ideology of the movement”. But it will not be easy to implement such a likely scenario, even partially, fulfilling the requirements of the main international players.

But if this happens, the official international recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will become an unusual precedent affecting the course of events throughout the region. As the American edition of Foreign Policy writes in that connection, "relations between countries will become more complicated due to a change in the balance of power" there.

By the way, last week at a meeting of the UN Security Council, India teamed up with three Western powers - the United States, Britain and France to put forward joint tough demands addressed to the Taliban, while Russia teamed up with China in an attempt to soften the wording of the resolution on Afghanistan. In the meantime, according to the rules of the General Assembly, until the decision of the mandate committee, the representation in the UN will remain with the current Ambassador of Afghanistan.