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Afghan Taliban, Myanmar junta not allowed into UN for now

Saturday, 17 December 2022 10:38 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 17 December 2022 10:43 AM ]

US Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an aid conference for Afghanistan at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on September 13, 2021. (Via Reuters)

The UN general assembly has for the second time approved postponing a decision on whether the Afghan Taliban administration and the Myanmar’s military junta can send a UN ambassador to New York.

The decision that took place on Friday when the 193-member general assembly approving without a vote and rather by consensus, a decision by the UN credentials committee to delay the vote that also deferred a decision on rival claims to Libya's UN seat.

The nine-member UN credentials committee includes Russia, China and the United States.

“The committee decided to postpone its consideration of the credentials pertaining to the representatives of Myanmar, Afghanistan and of Libya,” said Guyana’s UN ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who chairs the credentials committee.

Ever since Afghanistan’s Taliban government came to power again and ever since Myanmar’s leader Aung Suu Kyi was removed from power, the void of a new envoy has not been filled yet.

Claims were made for the seats of Myanmar and Afghanistan with the Taliban administration and Myanmar's junta pitted against envoys of the governments they ousted last year. UN acceptance of the Taliban administration or Myanmar's junta would be a step toward the international recognition sought by both.

Since December 2021, Afghanistan UN mission diplomat Naseer Faiq has served as Afghanistan's chargé d’affaires to the UN, but what the Taliban government has chosen for the UN, ambassador Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, remains unrecognized.

In August 2021, the Taliban seized control after a chaotic US military withdrawal.

Meanwhile, ever since a military coup in Myanmar, the general assembly decided to keep Kyaw Moe Tun, a diplomat of Aung San Suu Kyi’s former government, in his seat.

A rival claim was also made this year for Libya's UN seat that is currently held by the government of national unity in Tripoli, by a Government of National Stability led by Fathi Bashagha and backed by a parliament in the country's east.

The oil-rich country has been in turmoil since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, which ended with the killing of the country’s longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi.

According to the credentials committee, it could "revert to consideration of these credentials at a future time in the seventy-seventh session" of the General Assembly, which ends in September 2023.

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Afghanistan Taliban Libya Muammar Gaddafi Myanmar UN General Assembly un envoy Fathi Bashagha Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett Aung Suu Kyi Mohammad Suhail Shaheen