NEW YORK, US
The
Taliban's new foreign minister has asked to address world leaders at this
week's United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, a UN spokesman said
Tuesday.Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir khan Muttaqi speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Ministry of Afghanistan in Kabul on September 14, 2021
The
ambassador of the Afghan government ousted by the Taliban last month has also
requested to speak, with the UN yet to decide who will represent the country at
the world body.
A
nine-member credentials committee will now rule on the dueling requests, UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, but it is unclear whether the committee will
meet before the end of the convocation on Monday.
UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received a letter from Taliban-appointed
Amir Khan Muttaqi "requesting to participate" in the high-level
debate, Dujarric said.
It was
dated Monday September 20 -- the day before the session got underway -- and
listed Muttaqi as "Minister of Foreign Affairs," he added.
The letter
did not specify whether Muttaqi wanted to travel to New York to speak or
whether the Taliban would submit a recorded video message, as many leaders are
doing this year due to Covid-19.
The letter
also indicated that Ghulam Isaczai "no longer represents" Afghanistan
at the United Nations.
He was the
ambassador to the UN of the Afghan government ousted from power in August as US
military troops exited the country, ending their 20-year war.
The letter
said that the Taliban had nominated their Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen
as Afghanistan's permanent representative to the UN.
The note,
which had the letterhead "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs," said that former president Ashraf Ghani was
"ousted" on August 15, the day he fled the country.
"Countries
across the world no longer recognise him as president," the letter said,
according to the UN.
The UN
spokesman also said that Secretary-General Guterres had received a separate
letter from Isaczai, dated September 15, containing the list of Afghanistan's
delegation for the session.
That
letter listed Isaczai as Afghanistan's permanent representative, Dujarric said.
"These
two communications have been sent by the secretariat, after consultation with
the office of the president of the General Assembly, to the members of the
credentials committee of the 76th session of the General Assembly," he
said.
The
committee is made up of Russia, China, the United States, Sweden, South Africa,
Sierra Leone, Chile, Bhutan and the Bahamas.
The
committee has in the past refrained from making a decision and instead referred
it to the General Assembly for a vote, a diplomatic source said.
No
government has yet recognized the Taliban government, first demanding that it
meet commitments on human rights, but some have made positive noises.
"The
pragmatic, political view is that there is a new reality. And if you want to
ignore that, that's your choice," Shah Mahmood Qureshi, foreign minister
of the Taliban's historic backer Pakistan told reporters Monday, stopping short
of calling for legal recognition. - AFP
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