Taliban's UN envoy urges quick recognition as Pakistan, Turkey express concern

In an emergency measure, the UN aid coordinator Martin Griffiths released USD45 million in life-saving support Wednesday for Afghanistan from the world body's emergency fund.
Taliban fighters sit on the back of a pickup truck as they stop on a hillside in Kabul. (Photo | AP)
Taliban fighters sit on the back of a pickup truck as they stop on a hillside in Kabul. (Photo | AP)

KABUL: The Taliban's newly appointed envoy to the United Nations on Wednesday urged quick world recognition of Afghanistan's new rulers even as the World Health Organisation raised the alarm of an impending health care disaster in the war-wracked country.

The humanitarian crisis is one of the many challenges the Taliban face since their takeover of Afghanistan last month, including renewed threats from the militant Islamic State group, which recently stepped up its attacks, targeting members of the Taliban in its stronghold in the country's east.

In an emergency measure, the UN aid coordinator Martin Griffiths released USD45 million in life-saving support Wednesday for Afghanistan from the world body's emergency fund.

The World Health Organisation said Afghanistan's health system is on the brink of collapse and that urgent action is needed.

The statement followed a recent visit to Kabul by a WHO team led by the agency's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who also met with Taliban leaders and others.

"The country faces an imminent humanitarian catastrophe," WHO said, adding that thousands of health facilities are without funding for medical supplies and salaries for health staff.

"Many of these facilities have now reduced operations or shut down, forcing health providers to make hard decisions on who to save and who to let die," WHO said and also emphasised "the need for women to maintain access to education, health care, and to the health workforce."

Griffiths warned that "allowing Afghanistan's health-care delivery system to fall apart would be disastrous."

People across Afghanistan, he added, "would be denied access to primary health care such as emergency caesarian sections and trauma care."

Earlier, the Taliban had written to the United Nations announcing that Suhail Shaheen, a former peace negotiator and spokesman for the Taliban political office, is their new UN representative .

They requested that Shaheen be allowed to address the UN General Assembly underway in New York.

"We have all the requirements needed for recognition of a government. So we hope the UN as an neutral world body recognise the current government of Afghanistan," Shaheen told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Afghanistan is listed as the final speaker of the ministerial meeting on Monday, and if no world recognition of the Taliban comes by then, Afghan Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai will give the address.

Isaczai is currently recognized as his country's UN ambassador but the Taliban, who overran most of Afghanistan last month as the US and NATO forces were in the final stages of their chaotic withdrawal from the country, argue that they are now in charge and have the right to appoint ambassadors.

Since they swept to power and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the Taliban have appointed an all-male Cabinet made up mostly of hard-liners from when they previously ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, including several people on the UN sanctions list.

Among those on the so called UN "black list" is Amir Khan Mutaqqi, the Taliban foreign minister and the author of the letter to the UN requesting Shaheen address the General Assembly.

The decision rests with a UN committee that generally meets in November and will issue a ruling "in due course," the General Assembly's spokeswoman Monica Grayley said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, attackers hit vehicles with Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, witnesses said, killing at least two fighters and three civilians.

In one attack, gunmen opened fire on a Taliban vehicle at a local gas station in the provincial capital of Jalalabad, killing two fighters, a gas station attendant and a child.

A second child was killed and two Taliban fighters were wounded in a bombing of another Taliban vehicle.

A third attack, also a bombing of Taliban vehicle in Jalalabad, wounded a person nearby but it was unclear if that person was a Taliban member or a civilian, the witnesses added, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of Taliban retribution.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for Wednesday's attacks, although the Islamic State group, which is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan, has said it was behind similar attacks in Jalalabad last week that killed eight people.

The Taliban and IS are enemies, and the attacks have raised the spectre of a wider conflict between the long-time rivals.

After two decades in Afghanistan, the United States should do more to help the country's refugees, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks aired Wednesday.

Turkey hosts the world's largest refugee population, some 4 million, mostly Syrians, and has warned that it cannot accept any more arrivals from Afghanistan.

"Right now, the U.S. is failing to meet its obligations. We have more than 300,000 Afghan refugees and we will no longer be able to afford to welcome any more Afghan refugees in Turkey," Erdogan said in a preview of a CBS interview due to be broadcast Sunday.

"Of course, the U.S. should do a lot and should invest a lot because the U.S. has been there for the last 20 years but why, why? First, these questions should be answered by the U.S."

Afghan refugees have been fleeing their country since last month, when the Taliban swept back into power as U.S. forces prepared to withdraw from the country at the end of August.

A day earlier, Erdogan used his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York to warn of a potential wave of refugees sparked by climate change.

Turkey is experiencing growing discontent at the levels of migration since the start of the Syrian conflict a decade ago.

The government is in the process of bolstering security on its eastern border with Iran, including a wall, amid fears that the Taliban's rule could drive refugees, many trying to reach Europe, to Turkey's frontier.

Pakistan on Wednesday expressed concern at the economic situation of Afghanistan and urged the world to help the war-torn country to stabilise its economy.

Foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood made the comments during a meeting with Ambassador Yue Xiaoyong and Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, Special Envoys/Representatives of China and Russia respectively to Afghanistan.

Pakistan's special Afghan envoy Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq was also present in the meeting.

During the meeting, views were exchanged on the latest political and economic situation in Afghanistan, according to a statement by Pakistan's Foreign Office.

Mahmood said that "Afghanistan's present economic indicators were a matter of concern" and there was apprehension of economic meltdown which could result in a new wave of refugee influx in the neighbouring countries.

"It was, therefore, important that the international community should remain engaged and provide humanitarian assistance on an urgent basis and help stabilise the economic situation in Afghanistan," he said.

The Foreign Secretary hoped that the government in Afghanistan would continue to take steps leading to lasting stability in Afghanistan.

He reaffirmed that Pakistan would continue its efforts to support Afghanistan on its path to peace, progress and prosperity.

The three epical envoys met Mahmood after their visit to Kabul where they met the Taliban leaders as well as other leading Afghan figures, including Hamid Karzai and Dr Abdullah Abdullah.

Mahmood, appreciating the Special Envoys' visit to Kabul, highlighted the importance of close coordination to promote the shared objectives of a peaceful, stable, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan, according to the FO.

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