UNITED NATIONS — Afghanistan’s envoy to the
UN pulled out of delivering an address to the General Assembly Monday, as the diplomatic marathon that saw 100 leaders defy coronavirus fears to meet in person in
New York drew to a close.
اضافة اعلان
Ghulam Isaczai, who represented president Ashraf Ghani’s regime that was ousted last month, had been due to defy the Taliban with a speech but he removed his name from the list of speakers early Monday.
The annual high-level meet was also set to end without a speech on behalf of Myanmar, whose envoy has defied the military junta running the country to stay in his post.
But Guinea’s representative was expected to speak despite being appointed by the former president deposed in a military coup earlier this month.
The
Taliban wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last Monday requesting that its new foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi be allowed to “participate” instead of Isaczai.
The group said that Isaczai, who had urged nations last month to “unequivocally state” that they would not recognize a Taliban government, “no longer represents” Afghanistan at the global body.
The UN still considers Isaczai the head of Afghanistan’s mission and he appeared on a list of speakers sent out by the UN late Sunday.
“The country withdraws its participation in the general debate,” Monica Grayley, a spokeswoman for the assembly’s president, told AFP, adding that the mission had not cited a reason for the withdrawal.
Myanmar and Guinea were also causing intrigue going into the final day.
A high-level UN diplomat told AFP that “an agreement” had been reached between the United States, Russia and China preventing Myanmar’s UN ambassador — an outspoken supporter of the democracy movement — from speaking.
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