World urged to engage with Afghans

Though no Afghan voice was heard at the United Nations General Assembly session that ended this week, the Taliban government cannot be ignored for the sake of the Afghan people, said national leaders and experts.

Ghulam Isaczai, the ambassador to the UN of the government that was ousted in August, on Sunday withdrew his name from a list of speakers that were to address the General Debate of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly the next day.

That development left Afghanistan with no representative to address the UN body. It also added weight to the widespread calls for the international community not to ignore the Taliban government, for the sake of desperate Afghans facing worsening hardships.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the acting foreign minister of the Taliban interim government, had requested that a Taliban representative be allowed to speak at the UN General Debate, and he also nominated their Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan's ambassador to the world body. But the nomination has yet to be approved by the nine-member credentials committee, which includes the United States, China and Russia.

The assembly is expected to be asked to vote in November on which of the competing delegations should represent Afghanistan at the UN, according to Agence France-Presse.

Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Center for Research and Security Studies in Pakistan, said it was a legitimate request on the Taliban's part to have their representative address Monday's session－the last day of the UN General Assembly's annual gathering in New York. One cannot represent a country "if a government does not exist or is gone", said Gul, referring to the former government.

The Taliban's interim government deserves the right to engagement with other countries, speakers from a number of countries said.

In a virtual address to the General Assembly on Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the UN to mobilize the international community to extend financial assistance to Afghanistan during the country's crisis.

"If we neglect Afghanistan right now, according to the UN, half the people of Afghanistan are already vulnerable, and by next year almost 90 percent of the people in Afghanistan will go below the poverty line," he said.

Humanitarian crisis

"There is a huge humanitarian crisis looming ahead. And this will have serious repercussions not just for the neighbors of Afghanistan but everywhere."

The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, encouraged the international community to continue to engage with the Taliban and support the Afghan people, stressing the importance of "separating between humanitarian aid and political differences".

"It's also important to continue dialogue with the Taliban," he said on the first day of the general debate on Sept 21. "Boycotting them would only lead to polarization and reactions, whereas dialogue could be fruitful."

Farhan Mujahid Chak, associate professor of Political Science for Gulf Studies at Qatar University, said the Qatari emir's speech was important because it underlined the emerging regional consensus that governments and international organizations should engage with the Taliban interim government.

Such action is crucial to prevent renewed violence, a humanitarian crisis, new waves of refugees and a rapid descent into further instability, Chak said.

He noted that Afghanistan's immediate neighbors have achieved a broad-based consensus on how to move forward, and that includes separating politics from the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the General Assembly on Saturday, called upon the international community to help Afghanistan.

"(The) world must fulfill its duty by providing help to the people in war-torn Afghanistan where women, children and minorities are in need," he said, adding it was imperative that the country not be used as a base to spread terror.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York that the political process in Afghanistan could not move forward without the Taliban's cooperation.

There is a need for Security Council resolutions to advance this process, he said. Russia has moved "to facilitate the inter-Afghan reconciliation and inter-Afghan political process", he added.

Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio on Sunday urged foreign governments to act to prevent a financial collapse in the country that would trigger massive migrant outflows, though he said Italy refused to recognize the Taliban government.

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman of the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressed that Afghanistan wants to have friendly relations with the international community, including countries within the region.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.