UN Committee To Vote On Allowing Taliban To Officially Represent Afghanistan

The United Nations Credentials Committee (UNCC) will vote Tuesday on whether to allow a Taliban-appointed representative to replace the country’s current representative, appointed by the now-defunct government of Afghanistan.

The Taliban called on world leaders to accept their representative, Doha-based Suhail Shaheen, as the official Afghan representative in September. The current representative is Ghulam Isacza, who was appointed by the Afghan regime the Taliban overthrew in August and early September.

Many in the U.S. have called on President Joe Biden’s administration to take a hard stance against Taliban recognition, arguing the regime has no credibility on human rights issues and cannot be trusted.

“Under no circumstance should the United States, or any other country, vote to recognize the Taliban at the United Nations,” Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley told the Daily Caller. “It should not be a difficult decision to keep a group of terrorists out of an organization founded to maintain peace and security.”

The U.S., Russia and China are each members of the UNCC, alongside Mexico, Botswana, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Mozambique and Saint Kittz and Nevis. While none of the member countries have weighed in with an official position on replacing Isacza, China has taken a sympathetic stance toward the Taliban regime.

Taliban representatives called China “our most important partner” in early September, and China offered the Taliban a “warm welcome” soon after its rise to power.

Shaheen has also said the Taliban is counting on Russia’s support to be recognized. While Russian officials said Oct. 19 that recognition of the Taliban was “not on the table,” they later clarified that Russia may recognize the regime if the Taliban meets certain conditions.

State Department press secretary Ned Price has remained vague on the U.S. stance for recognizing the Taliban, but also laid out a series of conditions the Taliban must meet if it hopes to secure recognition.

Price stated the U.S. won’t consider recognition unless the Taliban “continue[s] to promote and allow free movement of people…allow and support humanitarian assistance both by UN agencies and by NGOs [and] live up to commitments that they’ve made to counterterrorism, whether it’s coming from ISIS-K or whether it’s coming from al-Qaida.”

Tuesday’s decision from the UNCC will serve as a recommendation ahead of an official vote in the General Assembly. The General Assembly has a number of options beyond simply replacing Isacza with Shaheen, however. It can postpone its vote on the issue virtually indefinitely, or vote to remove Isacza and leave the seat vacant.

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