KABUL: The Taliban are inching closer in the direction of international recognition however any concessions Afghanistan’s new rulers make can be on their phrases, the regime’s overseas minister stated in an interview.

In his first interview since getting back from talks with Western powers in Oslo, Overseas Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi additionally urged Washington to unlock Afghanistan’s property to assist ease a humanitarian disaster.

No nation has formally recognised the federal government put in after the Taliban seized energy in August as US-led forces withdrew following a 20-year occupation.

However Muttaqi instructed AFP late Wednesday that Afghanistan’s new rulers had been slowly gaining international acceptance.

“On the process of getting recognition… we have come closer to that goal,” he stated.

“That is our right, the right of the Afghans. We will continue our political struggle and efforts until we get our right.”

The talks in Norway final month had been the primary involving the Taliban held on Western soil in a long time.

Whereas Norway insisted the assembly was not supposed to give the brand new rulers formal recognition, the Taliban have touted it as such.

Muttaqi stated his authorities was actively engaged with the international neighborhood — a transparent indication, he insisted, of rising acceptance.

“The international community wants to have interaction with us,” he stated. “We have had good achievements in that.”

Beneath strain

Muttaqi stated a number of nations had been working embassies in Kabul, with extra anticipated to open quickly.

“We expect that the embassies of some of the European and Arab countries will open too,” he stated.

However Muttaqi stated any concessions the Taliban made in areas reminiscent of human rights could be on their phrases and never on account of international strain.

“What we are doing in our country is not because we have to meet conditions, nor are we doing it under someone’s pressure,” he stated.

“We are doing it as per our plan and policy.”

The Taliban have promised a softer model of the rule that characterised their first stint in energy from 1996 till 2001.

However the brand new regime has been swift to bar ladies from most authorities jobs and shut nearly all of ladies’ secondary colleges.

Nonetheless, regardless of clear proof to the opposite, Muttaqi insisted the brand new regime had not sacked any staff of the earlier US-backed authorities.

“None of the 500,000 employees of the previous regime, men or women, have been fired. They all are getting paid,” he stated.

However on the streets of Kabul and elsewhere within the nation, 1000’s of individuals say they’ve misplaced their jobs or that they haven’t been paid for months.

Conditional assist

Lengthy depending on international assist, Afghanistan’s financial disaster has been made worse by Washington freezing almost $10 billion in state property held overseas.

With poverty deepening and a drought devastating farming in lots of areas, the United Nations has warned that half of the nation’s 38 million inhabitants faces meals shortages this winter.

Washington and far of the worldwide neighborhood insist any monetary assist is conditional on the Taliban bettering their rights document — particularly relating to ladies.

The Taliban authorities has forcefully dispersed ladies’s protests, detained critics and overwhelmed Afghan journalists reporting on anti-regime rallies — one thing Muttaqi additionally denied.

“Until now we have not arrested anyone who is against the ideology of this system or this government, and we have not harmed anyone,” he stated.

Nonetheless, the United Nations and Amnesty International blamed the Taliban for detaining, then releasing, two Afghan journalists snatched from outdoors their workplace this week.