Recognition does not matter much to the hardliners under the Taliban

Taliban representatives seem busy. Afghan ministers and diplomats have had regular appointments at home and abroad in recent weeks. For example, the Afghan foreign minister and his Chinese counterpart agreed to expand the “Belt and Road Initiative” – ​​Chinese investments in infrastructure and transportation of raw materials – to Afghanistan.

Taliban want to do business. It becomes more difficult when diplomatic communication relates to the ideological trajectory of the regime, such as the far-reaching restriction of women’s rights. So the international community still does not officially recognize the Taliban. After nearly two years of seizing power in Afghanistan, the question arises of how effective this principled stand will be. New report A letter to the UN Security Council in early June casts doubt on that.

Ostensibly, the Taliban continued to call for international recognition. But according to UN Security Council researchers, the national policies show little of the regime’s willingness to “bow to pressure to implement reforms or compromises in the hope that in return they will receive political recognition.”

The Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team’s annual report, based this time for the first time on a full research period under the Taliban regime, shows that the current rulers are preoccupied mainly with their own conflicting tendencies.

Puritans versus pragmatists

Analysts have been trying for several months to make sense of this rift between the ideological hardliners and the more pragmatic members of the group. Those seem to have been left behind: For several months now, officials in the political capital, Kabul, have been increasingly bypassed. Instead, the center of power has shifted to the southern city of Kandahar, home to the Taliban. The new “emir” of the country, Hebatullah Akhundzada, resides there, and the regime’s well-known spokesman has recently moved there. It was also the destination for some of May’s diplomatic visits. Prime Minister of Qatar Akhundzada met there, as did a delegation from Japan.

In Kandahar, the Taliban can count on popular support. signed it Washington Post in a reportCitizens talk about more control over the roads, about internal security and peace. But for many Afghans, the situation is much worse. The country suffers from increasing poverty and famine, and there is a shortage of medical resources. From Kandahar, the strict rules that now govern the lives of girls and women—just no going to the garden, no schooling—were injected into the country by decree. Public corporal punishment is back. The UN rapporteurs said that promises of a “new Taliban” in 2021 – that they would respect human rights, pursue comprehensive policies at the national level, and ensure international security – turned out to be hollow or even lies.

It presents a dilemma for the international community: to submit to a brutal regime and, more closely, humanitarian aid now provide forty million citizens in apparent need? Or stick to principles, ignore the Taliban and let the Afghans fend for themselves?

Don’t talk with but about

At the moment, the UN is not talking to the current rulers of Afghanistan, it is talking about them. At the beginning of May, twenty countries gathered for a conference behind closed doors about the situation in the country. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for recognition of the Taliban regime in his concluding statement Certainly not an option. He said that the international community finds the violation of the rights of women and girls unacceptable. However, countries should carefully consider the “correct international common position” towards the “actual Taliban authorities”.

And, according to the UN rapporteurs, it is precisely the absence of such a “multilateral strategy and goals” that allowed the conservative Taliban to consolidate its power inside Afghanistan. Researcher Kabir Taneja of the New Delhi-based Observer think tank also doubts whether the jihadists are really interested in the wishes of foreign powers. This group lived in misery for twenty years. Putting on a diplomatic pariah status won’t hurt them,” he says Norwegian Refugee Council.

Last weekend, after the publication of the UN report, the accusations against the Taliban basically triggered a sharp counter-reaction. Prominent speaker Zabihullah Mujahid Refuse analysis There will be conflicting directions. According to him, the “unfounded” UN report shows above all “clear hostility” towards Afghanistan: “The publication of such biased and unfounded reports by the Security Council does not help Afghanistan and international peace and security, but rather increases the anxiety of Afghans.” People.” With such disparate readings, recognition remains elusive.