Lavrov: settlement in Afghanistan will bring closer legal recognition of Taliban power

14 April 2023

Improving the situation in Afghanistan in some aspects, including the formation of an inclusive government and solving human rights issues in the country, will be an important step towards legal recognition of the Taliban's power, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

 

"When the Taliban (radical movement, banned in Russia - TASS) took power in Afghanistan after the US and the coalition led by them fled, they undertook to expand their social base, including by including other political forces in the governing structures. It was a voluntary commitment by them, as well as a commitment to eradicate terrorism, eradicate drug trafficking. <...> It would be an important step toward official recognition, not only toward de facto recognition of the Taliban leadership, but also toward de jure recognition of Afghanistan's new government, so that these issues can be solved more quickly, it is also fundamentally important to address the issue of voting rights, educational rights of women and girls," Lavrov said Friday at a press conference following his visit to Uzbekistan.

 

The minister added that there is still a long way to go to form an inclusive government's in the country. "The Taliban is a reality, but it is a reality that is not perceived by everyone in Afghanistan, primarily in terms of the non-inclusive composition of the government of this country, in which only one political force is represented, the Taliban movement. The Taliban say that their government includes Uzbeks and Tajiks and Hazaras, but the representatives of these ethnic groups that make up the government are still Taliban in a political sense," the Russian foreign minister said.

 

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic world"

Photo: David Mark/Pixabay

Based on materials from TASS