Taliban score successes with embassy closures, COP attendance

Afghanistan embassies in Britain and Norway loyal to the pro-Western authorities ousted by the Taliban in 2021 discreetly shut down this autumn, as the West seeks a more pragmatic approach to the country's Islamic rulers.

The embassy of Afghanistan in London closed on September 27, following the mission in Oslo which shut down on September 12.

Both were run by staff loyal to the former authorities of the country, who were ejected from Kabul in the Taliban's lightning offensive in August 2021, a defeat seen as one of the biggest military debacles for the West.

And now a senior Taliban official is even attending the COP29 UN climate talks which began on Monday, joining world leaders and top Western officials at the conference in Baku.

Analysts say such moves represent acceptance of the de-facto political reality in Afghanistan and the need to work with its rulers on issues including migration, the fight against drugs, and security.

Embassies like those in London and Oslo, in something of a diplomatic quirk, had carried on their work after the Taliban takeover, issuing visas and carrying out other consular work in the name of the Afghan state.

But this summer the Taliban government announced that it "no longer took responsibility" for such passports and visas, adding that it had cut all ties with these embassies.

In mid-September, the Taliban government's foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also accused them of "enormous corruption" and issuing "false documents" with increased prices, allegations denied by several officials of the former missions contacted by AFP.

With the notable exceptions of Britain and Norway, most Western governments, which still do not recognise Taliban rule, did not budge.

"Norway acknowledges that it is the authorities who de facto control the state apparatus in Afghanistan and who, according to international law, can recall personnel from Afghan missions abroad," the Norwegian foreign ministry told AFP.

Afghan ambassador to the UK Zalmai Rassoul said on social media in September the embassy would close "at the official request of the host country."

"This decision was not made by the UK government," a spokesperson for the UK foreign office said.

"The state of Afghanistan decided to close the Afghan embassy in London and dismiss its staff."

London acknowledges that there is "no alternative to engaging pragmatically with the current administration of Afghanistan," added the spokesperson.

But the move by London was still surprising, coming from the country which after the US formed the second-largest contingent of the NATO coalition that drove the Taliban from power at the end of 2001 in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

In 20 years of deployment, 457 British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. Ten soldiers from Norway, also a member of this coalition, were killed.

"The word we use is betrayal," said Nazifullah Salarzai, president of an association representing Afghan ambassadors who worked for the former authorities.

"We have been betrayed by some of our partners in the international community, I'm not shying away from this."

But a European diplomat, who previously worked in Kabul, said a change in strategy by the West towards the Taliban authorities was necessary.

"Confrontation led nowhere," said the diplomat, asking not to be named, adding that the only outcome had been a "deterioration" of relations accompanied by a severe erosion of rights of Afghan women.

Western countries are forming de-facto relations with the Taliban, regarding the group as "a security actor" against the Islamic State (IS) branch in Afghanistan and preventing the country from "becoming a source of insecurity, a kind of threat," said a former Afghan security official who has taken refuge in Europe, asking not to be named.

Afghans opposed to the Taliban fear that Germany, where more than 500,000 Afghans live, will follow in the footsteps of London and Oslo.

"The federal government has so far made no changes to the status of Afghan representations in Germany" and does not consider the Taliban regime to be "legitimate", a German diplomatic source told AFP, asking not to be named.

But Berlin negotiated with the Taliban, with Qatar acting as an intermediary, to allow the expulsion of 28 Afghan convicts from Germany to their country of origin at the end of August, according to Der Spiegel.

Such expulsions could continue in the future via Uzbekistan, a country neighbouring Afghanistan that signed a migration agreement with Germany in mid-September, press reports have indicated.

Meanwhile, Matiul Haq Khalis, director general of Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), told AFP in Baku his team was invited to attend the UN climate talks by Azerbaijani authorities.

The Afghan delegation is in Baku as "guests" of the hosts, not as a party directly involved in the negotiations.

"When you lose wars, you only have bad solutions," said Gilles Dorronsoro, an expert on Afghanistan.

"The decision of London and Oslo is a gift for the Taliban but also based on reality," he added. "There is no alternative to the Taliban regime."