The Taliban’s nominated United Nations envoy Sohail Shaheen had posted on Twitter last month: “We have all the conditions needed for occupying the seat of Afghanistan at UN We hope legal requirements will supersede political preferences.” Unfortunately, however, a UN committee that met on Wednesday deferred a decision on who will represent Afghanistan at the United Nations. In other words, the Afghan Taliban have been told that they will not be allowed into the world body for now. That the world community is dragging its feet over the recognition of Taliban as legitimate or de jure rulers of Afghanistan is a fact. Its approach to the new rulers of Afghanistan is adding to the Afghan people’s misery in particular, to say the least.

Irum Nasir (Islamabad)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021