Russia has become the first country to allow appointment of a diplomatic representative of the Afghanistan’s Taliban government. A spokesman for the Taliban’s foreign ministry in Kabul said the arrangement of the Afghan embassy in Moscow has now been formally handed over to a Taliban-designated diplomat. Simultaneously, the Moscow government has formally accepted the diplomat’s nomination papers.
According to a statement issued by the Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul, the ambassador designated by the previous Afghan government in Moscow had stopped doing his job. Now, Al-Amur Jamal Gharwal, the Taliban’s designated diplomat, has taken over his diplomatic duties in Moscow. Meanwhile, the Russian news agency Interfax reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had recently approved the appointment of Jamal Gharwal as Afghan chief of staff in Moscow by the Taliban government in Kabul, recognizing his diplomatic credentials.
In the days leading up to the final withdrawal of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan last year, when the Taliban captured Kabul, the then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. Just days later, the Taliban established a regular nationwide but interim government, which they technically called the caretaker government of Afghanistan. The same government is still in power in Kabul.
It has been about eight months since the Taliban came back to power, but no country has formally recognized their government so far. Against this backdrop, Moscow’s appointment of Taliban-designated diplomat Jamal Gharwal as Afghan Nazim al-Amour allowed the hardline Taliban to be the first of its kind at both international and political levels. Since the Taliban came to power for the second time in this Hindu Kush state, many of the basic human rights of ordinary Afghans, especially women, have been restricted once again. The Taliban have not yet allowed Afghan girls to go back to school and all girls high schools in the country still remain closed.