Can the Taliban gain recognition at UN meeting in Doha?
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.
