Can the Taliban gain recognition at UN meeting in Doha?

Mohamed Yousri

Only 48 hours separate the ruling Taliban movement in Afghanistan from the dream of UN recognition.

However, the dream may turn into an illusion due to the reluctance of the movement to interact with the international community on a number of thorny issues.

The Taliban hopes to reach a solution that will give it minimum UN recognition as a representative of the Afghan people.

There are warnings, meanwhile, and fears that the Taliban can turn violent if it loses hope of realizing this recognition dream.

Faint hope

The Taliban hopes to obtain UN recognition during the UN meetings in Doha on May 1 and 2, after the hints of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed during a meeting at Princeton University on April 17, in which she indicated the possibility of holding discussions and taking small steps towards a possible preliminary recognition of the Taliban on certain conditions.

These hints opened closed doors of hope for the Taliban in the light of international and local objections to its actions, including calls by the Afghan opposition abroad to the UN not to recognize the movement as a representative of the Afghan people because of its human rights violations.

This came after the Security Council unanimously condemned the Taliban against the background of its handling of the women’s file.

The council described this handling as unprecedented in the history of the UN.

Taliban’s dream

Asian affairs specialist, Mohamed al-Sayed, believes the Taliban wants to fulfil its dream by all means.

“The movement found a glimmer of hope in the remarks made by Amina J. Mohammad about the possibility of reaching a formula for UN recognition of it,” al-Sayed told The Reference.

He added that the movement stuck to that statement alone and ignored the surrounding international and local climate.

This, he said, indicates the impossibility of achieving minimum recognition, amid international and local anger against the movement.