Ahead of a United Nations Security Council session on Afghanistan on Wednesday, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen, who has been nominated by the Islamic Emirate as its envoy for the UN, renewed a call for the United Nations seat for the current Kabul regime. On Wednesday, the UNSC is expected to address the situation in Afghanistan where a humanitarian crisis is looming, UNI news agency said.

There will be a briefing, followed by consultations, on Afghanistan. Special Representative and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Deborah Lyons and civil society representatives are expected to brief the session.

Suhail Shaheen, the Islamic Emirate’s Doha-based spokesperson, said the current government in Afghanistan “possesses what makes it eligible to represent the country at the UN”, he said on Twitter, repeating a call for Afghanistan’s UN seat.

Mohammad Hassan Haqyar, Kabul-based political analyst, said he expected the meeting would entail aid pledges for Afghanistan. The world’s recognition of the new government would also be discussed, he said, the Killid Group reported.

As member of the world body and the community, Haqyar said, Afghans have the right to be given a hand at this difficult time.

Some 23 million people in Afghanistan are in desperate need of food, and the $20 billion economy could shrink by $4 billion or more and 97% of the 38 million population are at risk of sinking into poverty, Abdallah Al Dardari, the resident representative for the UNDP in Afghanistan, has said.

The Taliban,much to the world's surprise, swept into power in Afghanistan in mid-August, but has yet to win international recognition.

The new rulers have several times made the call on the global community to recognise the new Islamic government.

The international community, however, is reluctant to recognise the new government or provide it with funds until the rulers provide assurances that it will uphold human rights and fulfil promises.

In September, the United Nations hosted a high-level donors conference to drum up emergency funds for Afghanistan. Donors at the event pledged more than $1 billion that went beyond the United Nations’ $606 million appeal it was seeking to help millions of people in Afghanistan until the end of the year.

The new Afghan authorities are equal to the task of fulfilling their commitments and international obligations, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov asserted on Tuesday, stressing that it is the only way the country can hope to become a part of the civilised world.

"We hope that the new Afghan authorities will do everything possible to fulfill their promises and international obligations, including the creation of an inclusive government, respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms, including the rights of women and national minorities, fight against international terrorism and drug trafficking, prevention of the deployment of various terrorist groups on the territory of the country, and the support of good-neighborly relations with the countries of the region," Kamilov said in an interview with Euractiv.

The minister said that the interim Afghan government "is capable of taking" those essential steps so that the country could become an equal entity of interstate and international relations in the near future and part of the common civilised world. Kamilov stressed that there was "no other way", and only this could lead the Afghan people to progress, prosperity and to the long-awaited peace.

(SAM)