Western countries should reopen embassies in Kabul: Potzel

KABUL (Pajhwok): UN secretary-general's deputy special representative for Afghanistan Markus Potzel has asked western countries to reopen their embassies in Afghanistan.

"My appeal would be for more Western states to be represented here again," Markus Potzel, who served as Berlin's ambassador to Afghanistan from 2014 to 2016, told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) media outlet on Sunday.

It was easier to assess the situation in Afghanistan when being present in the country, Potzel said, adding that it shouldn't be forgotten that Germany and other Western nations also had interests in Afghanistan.

Western countries closed their embassies in Kabul after the fall of the previous government.

The caretaker government has banned women from attending university and teenage girls from high schools and on Saturday asked local and foreign NGOs to suspend female staff.

No country has recognized the caretaker government so far.

But Potzel said: "Opening embassies does not have to go hand in hand with recognition of the Taliban regime."

Western states, he argued, are interested in a stable Afghanistan able to prevent the Islamic State militia from spreading further and cracking down on drugs cultivation.

hz/sa/ma