Afghanistan’s Taliban have claimed that the United States is blocking their path to gaining international recognition for the Islamic Group’s new government in Kabul.
The rebel group took power in August last year and an interim administration consisting entirely of male administration after the end of nearly 20 years of US-led foreign military intervention in the war-torn South Asian country.
“In terms of recognition by foreign countries, I think the United States is the biggest obstacle,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said when asked if his group’s policies or any country was responsible for the delay. to gain the legitimacy.
“It [America] does not allow other countries to move in this direction and has not taken any step on this point itself, ”he said, responding to reporters’ questions via a Taliban-controlled WhatsApp group for reporters.
Mujahid claimed that the Taliban had met “all the requirements” for their government to gain diplomatic recognition.
He argued that all countries, including the United States, should realize that political involvement with the Taliban is in “everyone’s interest”. This will enable the world to formally discuss “the grievances” they have with the Taliban.
Mujahid has insisted that Taliban leaders want “better” bilateral ties with the United States in line with the agreement reached in February 2020 in Doha, Qatar. Washington should also move toward establishing better ties with Kabul, he said.
“We were enemies and fought against the United States as long as it occupied Afghanistan. That war has now ended.”
No recognition
No country has yet recognized the Taliban as legitimate rulers of the country, mainly over their harsh treatment of Afghan women and girls. The group is also under pressure to govern the country through a broad-based political system where all Afghan groups have their representation to ensure long-term national stability.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan 10 months ago, the Taliban have suspended secondary education for most teenage girls and prevented female staff in certain government departments from returning to their duties.
The Ministry of Virtue and Virtue, which has the task of interpreting and enforcing the Taliban’s version of Islam, has ordered women to wear face masks in public. Women are prohibited from traveling more than 70 kilometers unless accompanied by a male family member.
The Taliban rejected calls to remove the curbs on women and Mujahid also defended them. “The orders … regarding women are in accordance with [Islamic] Sharia, and these are the rules of Sharia, ”he claimed.
The Taliban is “religiously” obliged to implement Islamic Sharia to counter practices that prohibit Islam, Mujahid said, without expanding.
“Hopefully, Afghan women will not make demands for things that are against the principles of Islam.”
Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors and regional countries have also urged the Taliban authorities to ease their restrictions on women before they can consider forming formal ties with Kabul.
“[An] inclusive ethnopolitical government should be the first step towards this. We make no secret of this, and we say it outright to our Afghan partners, “Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special envoy to Afghanistan, said earlier this week when asked if Moscow was close to giving the Taliban legitimacy.
In addition, scholars in many Islamic countries have rejected the Taliban’s ban on women’s education and other policies restricting women’s access to public life.
Al-Qaeda presence
Mujahid claimed that neither Al Qaeda nor any of its members were present in the country, and that they had all left Afghanistan for their native countries after the US military invasion in October 2001.
Washington blames leaders of the terrorist network for the plan of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America from the then Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
At the time, only three countries – Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – recognized the Taliban. During their 1996-2001 rule, the group banned women from public life and girls from receiving training altogether, leading to Afghanistan’s diplomatic isolation.
Mujahid reiterated Kabul’s decision that it would not allow anyone to threaten the US and its allies by using Afghan soil. “We are ready for this, but only if further steps are taken to build mutual trust and strengthen political ties.”
A United Nations report last month said the Taliban had continued to maintain close ties with al-Qaeda, indicating the reported presence of the network’s “nuclear leadership” in eastern Afghanistan, including its leader Ayman al-Zawahri. .
However, the report noted that neither Al Qaeda nor the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) “are believed to launch the earliest international attacks before 2023, regardless of their intention or whether the Taliban act to curb. they.”
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