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NEW YORK: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that international recognition of the Taliban was not currently under consideration.
Lavrov was speaking on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders in New York for the UN General Assembly. “The question of international recognition of the Taliban at the present juncture is not on the table,” Lavrov told a news conference.
His comments come after the Taliban nominated a UN envoy, setting up a showdown over Afghanistan’s seat at the world body. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month.
Taliban has nominated the group’s Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s UN ambassador. Ghulam Isaczai, the current UN ambassador who represents the Afghan government ousted by the Taliban, has also asked to renew his UN accreditation.
Russia is a member of a nine-member UN credentials committee – along with China and the United States – which will deal with the competing claims on Afghanistan’s UN seat later this year.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi made the request in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week. Muttaqi had asked to speak during the annual high-level meeting of the General Assembly.
Guterres’ spokesperson, Farhan Haq, had confirmed Muttaqi’s letter. Haq said the rival requests for Afghanistan’s U.N. seat had been sent to a nine-member credentials committee, whose members include the United States, China and Russia.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the Taliban’s desire for international recognition is the only leverage other countries have to press for inclusive government and respect for rights, particularly for women, in Afghanistan.
When the Taliban last ruled between 1996 and 2001 the ambassador of the Afghan government they toppled remained the UN representative after the credentials committee deferred its decision on rival claims to the seat.
