Taliban Closer To International Recognition, Says Afghan Foreign Minister

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Taliban is getting closer to international recognition but every new Afghan ruler concession will meet their requirements, said the regime’s foreign minister in an interview with AFP.
In his first interview since returning from the talks with Western forces in Oslo, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also urged Washington to open Afghan assets to relieve the humanitarian crisis.

No country officially acknowledged the government installed after the Taliban won power in August because US-led forces withdrew after 20 years.

But Muttaqi told AFP at the end of Wednesday that Afghan’s new ruler slowly received international revenues.

“In the process of getting confession … we have approached that goal,” he said.

“That’s right, Afghan rights. We will continue our struggle and political efforts until we get our rights.”

The conversation in Norway last month was the first to involve the Taliban held in West land in decades.

While Norway insisted that the meeting was not intended to provide official recognition of the Islamist group, the Taliban had praised it.

Muttaqi said his government was actively involved with the international community – a clear indication, he insisted, increasing acceptance.

“The international community wants to have interactions with us,” he said. “We have good achievements in that.”

Muttaqi said several countries operated the embassy in Kabul, more expected to be opened soon.

“We hope the embassies of several European and Arab countries will also be open,” he said.

But Muttaqi said every concession made by the Taliban in areas such as human rights would be in accordance with their provisions and not as a result of international pressure.

“What we do in our country is not because we have to fulfill the condition, also we don’t do it under someone’s pressure,” he said.

“We do it according to our plans and policies.”

The Taliban has promised a softer version of the harsh rules of Islam which marked their first task from 1996 to 2001.

But the new regime has been fast for women bars from most of the government’s work and close most women’s middle schools.

However, despite clear evidence otherwise, Muttaqi insisted on the new regime not to fire employees from the previous US-backed government.

“There are no 500,000 employees from the previous regime, men or women, have been fired. They are all paid,” he said.

But on the streets of Kabul and elsewhere in the country, thousands of people said they had lost their jobs or that they had not been paid for months.