Taliban calls on Islamic countries to recognize its government: Have they achieved anything to encourage this step?

The Taliban continues to seek any international recognition of its government since its armed seizure of power in Afghanistan in August 2021, but despite the movement's pledges to integrate into the international community, it has not yet obtained any recognition, even from its allies, so it recently began resorting to the stage of emotional begging and playing the chord of religion to call on Islamic countries to recognize its government. However, what the movement has presented so far does not encourage confidence in it for several reasons related to its internal movements and its behavior with neighboring countries, especially Pakistan.

Call to the Islamic world

The movement sent an appeal to Islamic countries on Wednesday, January 19, demanding the official recognition of its government.

During a press conference in Kabul, Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund said, “I call on Muslim countries to take the initiative and officially recognize us, and then I hope that we can develop quickly.”

United Nations and foreign dilemmas

This appeal comes in light of the Taliban’s failure so far to obtain international recognition. Since it seized power in August 2021, it has submitted several requests to the United Nations to assign the Afghanistan seat to the movement’s representative, but the request was postponed more than once.

Since September 2021, the Taliban began addressing the UN General Assembly, demanding its recognition, which raised a number of questions in the international organization about how to accept the movement, as many countries still have it on their terrorism lists, as well as the possibility of this happening in a reverse way through negotiating with the movement a gradual mechanism to normalize international relations with it, especially in economic issues, in return for practical steps taken by the movement in return for this gradual progression.

In early December 2021, the UN General Assembly decided to postpone recognition of the Taliban government, and the committee responsible for approving the credentials of ambassadors to the international organization, headed by Swedish Ambassador Anna Karin Enestrom, confirmed that it had received two competing applications from Afghanistan, one from the old regime and the other from the Taliban regime that currently governs the country.

This position is considered a fundamental dilemma in front of the international recognition of the movement, which requires a vote in the General Assembly to separate the disputes over the representation of Afghanistan in the international organization.

Internal dilemmas

In addition to the dilemmas facing the Taliban in the matter of obtaining international recognition, the movement's own behavior may make voting in its favor extremely difficult for many countries, including neighboring countries, especially Pakistan, as the movement's threats to it began at an early stage and reached the point of threatening the borders, in addition to harboring leaders of the Pakistani Taliban movement and helping them threaten the security of the country and support its armed operations against the Pakistani security forces.

The world is also looking at the exclusionary policy adopted by the Taliban since the first day of the formation of its government, which was completely formed by the leaders of the first and second ranks of the movement, including figures who are still on the terrorist lists, in light of the complete marginalization of all political components in the country.

Perhaps the Taliban's actions with neighboring Pakistan constitute a major obstacle to the movement's recognition by other Islamic countries, unless the movement shows some kind of flexibility with the Pakistani file and the Pakistani Taliban.