Afghanistan has appointed its first accredited ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, the Taliban-led foreign ministry said. UAE is the second country to accept an envoy after China at that level.
🌐One of only three countries to recognise the Taliban from 1996-2001 (along with Pakistan & Saudi Arabia), the UAE accepts the credentials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Ambassador Badruddin Haqqani@StratNewsGlobal pic.twitter.com/foCchrl53o
— amitabh p revi (@amitabhprevi) August 21, 2024
Other than Beijing, no other foreign capital has officially recognized the Taliban’s government. No other country has also formally accepted the credentials of an ambassador.
Taliban also sent envoys to several countries and neighbouring nations like Pakistan and Kazakhstan as “chargé d’affaires”. Deputy Minister of Kazakhstan stated that the the country accredited Mr. Muhammad Rahmani as Charge d’Affaires of Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, the Taliban ministry said that Mawlawi Badreddin Haqqani had been nominated as its ambassador for the UAE. It presented his credentials to the UAE’s foreign ministry’s assistant undersecretary for protocol affairs.
“The newly accredited Ambassador of Afghanistan will soon formally present his credentials to the Emir of the United Arab Emirates during (an) official ceremony,” the ministry said.
UAE and the Taliban share economic ties with each other. In 2022, the UAE won contracts to run operations at Kabul airport. In June, UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Afghanistan’s Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani. Haqqani has been designated as a “specially designated global terrorist” by the U.S.
In August 2021, the Taliban forces entered the Afghan capital Kabul. Afghan security forces disintegrated and President Ashraf Ghani fled.
China and the UAE have not officially recognized the Taliban administration.
However, analysts suggest that accepting the Taliban ambassador is a grey area of international diplomacy.
Several governments, however, have said that Taliban will not receive formal recognition until they change some of their ideologies. Some of them include women’s rights and re-opening high schools and universities to girls and women.
