Acting Afghan officials call for governments to recognize Taliban administration

Top Afghan officials in a press conference on Wednesday called on international governments to recognize the Taliban’s administration in the country.

“I ask all governments, especially Islamic countries, that they should start recognition,” Afghanistan’s acting prime minister, Hasan Akhund, said, Reuters reported.

The comment was made at the conference with United Nations officials in Akhund’s first major speech since he took the role in September.

International governments have frozen money to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in August after Western countries abruptly pulled out of the country. 

Humanitarian aid has been sent to assist with the country’s dire economic situation, but Afghan officials say it won’t be enough.

“Short-term aid is not the solution; we must try to find a way to solve problems fundamentally,” Akhund said, according to Reuters.

“Humanitarian aid is the short-term solution to economic problems; but what is needed to solve problems in the long run is the implementation of infrastructure projects,” Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said.

The White House said Jan. 11 it would provide $308 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and send millions of vaccine doses for the coronavirus.

The U.S. has tried to avoid giving the Taliban, which is labeled a terrorist group, direct funds and is funneling its money directly to the Afghan people facing the impact of the U.S. withdrawal from the region.