The United Nations Security Council voted to establish ties with the Taliban, which is the governing body in Afghanistan, even though most of the international community have not yet recognized them.
The council approved a resolution on Thursday that does not use the word Taliban, and it details a new one-year mandate for the U.N. political mission in Afghanistan, according to Agence France-Presse. Fourteen countries voted in favor, while Russia abstained.
“This new mandate for UNAMA (the UN mission to Afghanistan) is crucial not only to respond to the immediate humanitarian and economic crisis, but also to reach our overarching goal of peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Norwegian U.N. Ambassador Mona Juul, whose country drafted the resolution, told AFP after the vote.
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“The Council gives a clear message with this new mandate: UNAMA has a crucial role to play in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan and to support the Afghan people as they face unprecedented challenges and uncertainty,”
The Taliban overthrew the Afghan government in the middle of August, at a time when the United States was only weeks away from departing for the first time in 20 years. The U.S., in partnership with a number of other Western countries, launched a noncombatant emergency operation to help Americans, third-country nationals, and Afghans who were believed to be at risk under the new Taliban regime flee. They helped roughly 120,000 people flee during that time.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to the Security Council in January saying it received “credible allegations” that the Taliban had killed more than 100 people associated with the previous government, its security forces, or those who worked with international troops since they assumed power, according to the Associated Press.
The Taliban also finds themselves in a difficult position with ISIS-K, the Afghanistan affiliate of the Islamic State, continuing to grow because the two sides don’t get along. The Taliban’s relationship with al Qaeda is somewhat better, though the two groups’ presence presents challenges for the Taliban.
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The Biden administration announced last month that it’s releasing $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds, clearing a path for the families of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to pursue half, with the remaining distributed for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan amid a food crisis.
“An estimated 22.8 million people are projected to be in ‘crisis’ and ’emergency’ levels of food insecurity until March 2022,” the U.N. chief said in the letter, detailing the humanitarian problems. “Almost 9 million of these will be at ’emergency’ levels of food insecurity — the highest number in the world. Half of all children under five are facing acute malnutrition.”
