UN rejects seat for Afghan caretaker govt

KABUL (Pajhwok): The UN General Assembly has once again denied giving seat to Afghanistan caretaker government in the world’s body.

The general assembly also rejected attempts by Myanmar’s military junta and Libya’s rival eastern-based government to take their country’s seats at the United Nations.

The 193-member world body voted by consensus, with a bang of the gavel by assembly president Csaba Kőrösi, to approve a recommendation by its Credentials Committee that the requests be deferred.

The decision means that Afghanistan’s seat will remain with the country’s previous government led by President Ashraf Ghani, which was ousted by the Taliban in August 2021.

Guyana’s UN ambassador, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who chairs the credentials committee, introduced its report before the vote, citing rival communications from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Libya seeking to represent their countries.

“The committee decided to postpone its consideration of the credentials pertaining to the representatives of Myanmar, Afghanistan and of Libya” to a future time in the current 77th session of the General Assembly, which ends next September, she said.

After the Taliban overran Afghanistan in the final weeks of the US and NATO forces’ pullout from the country after 20 years of war, they sought a UN seat and initially promised to allow women’s and minority rights.

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