Taliban officially request international recognition

Acting Prime Minister of Afghanistan Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund on Wednesday called on the world to officially recognize the Taliban’s administration of the country, saying at a press conference in Kabul that all conditions have been met.

“I ask all governments, especially Muslim countries, to start recognizing”, Akhund said in his first media appearance since he took office in September.

Foreign powers are hesitant to recognize the Taliban administration that took over Afghanistan in August, while Western countries led by the United States have frozen Afghan banking assets worth billions of dollars and stopped development finance – once the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy.

At the press conference, which was also attended by UN officials, Akhund and other Taliban officials appealed for an easing of restrictions on the transfer of funds to Afghanistan, blaming the growing economic crisis on the freezing of funds.

“Short-term aid is not the solution, we have to try to find a way to radically solve the problems”, he said.
The international community has stepped up humanitarian assistance aimed at meeting urgent needs, but as the country struggles with a cash crisis and the economic situation deteriorates during the harsh winter, millions of Afghans fall into poverty.

UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Deborah Lyons also spoke at the conference, saying that the Afghan economic crisis is a serious problem that all countries need to address.

“The United Nations is working to revive the economy of Afghanistan and address economic problems primarily”, she said.

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said the Taliban government was seeking to establish economic ties with the international community.

“Humanitarian aid is a short-term solution to economic problems, but what is needed to solve the problems in the long term is the implementation of infrastructure projects”, he said.