Taliban closer to international recognition, says Afghan foreign minister

The Taliban are inching closer towards international recognition but any concessions Afghanistan’s new rulers make will be on their terms, the regime’s foreign minister said in an interview with AFP.

In his first interview since returning from talks with Western powers in Oslo, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also urged Washington to unlock Afghanistan’s assets to help ease a humanitarian crisis.

No country has formally recognised the government installed after the Taliban seized power in August as US-led forces withdrew following a 20-year occupation.

But Muttaqi told AFP late Wednesday that Afghanistan’s new rulers were slowly gaining international acceptance.

“On the process of getting recognition... we have come closer to that goal,” he said.

“That is our right, the right of the Afghans. We will continue our political struggle and efforts until we get our right.”

The talks in Norway last month were the first involving the Taliban held on Western soil in decades.

While Norway insisted the meeting was not intended to give the hardline Islamist group formal recognition, the Taliban have touted it as such.

Muttaqi said his government was actively engaged with the international community — a clear indication, he insisted, of growing acceptance.

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

Muttaqi said several countries were operating embassies in Kabul, with more expected to open soon.

“We expect that the embassies of some of the European and Arab countries will open too,” he said.

But Muttaqi said any concessions the Taliban made in areas such as human rights would be on their terms and not as a result of international pressure.

“What we are doing in our country is not because we have to meet conditions, nor are we doing it under someone’s pressure,” he said.

“We are doing it as per our plan and policy.”

The Taliban have promised a softer version of the harsh Islamic rule that characterised their first stint in power from 1996 until 2001.

But the new regime has been swift to bar women from most government jobs and close the majority of girls’ secondary schools.

Still, despite clear evidence to the contrary, Muttaqi insisted the new regime had not sacked any employees of the previous US-backed government.

“None of the 500,000 employees of the previous regime, men or women, have been fired. They all are getting paid,” he said.

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