In short:
Russia has become the first country to formally recognise the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan since it seized power in 2021.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry called Russia’s official recognition a historic step.
The Taliban has sought international recognition while also enforcing its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Religious extremists that aim to undermine women’s liberties recognizes game.
Fuck Russia, fuck the Taliban
That said, all the other countries that haven’t recognized them just have their head in the sand.
Whether you like them or not, they’re the ones in power there and despite being a bunch of bumbling, backwards, violent, religious fanatics, they’ve actually done a better job of holding onto that power than anyone else has over the last half century.
Pretending they’re not is really just denying reality.
Aren’t they recognized as a terrorist group vs a government? I’m guessing legitimacy is the main issue here.
Interestingly enough, the US doesn’t seem to regard the Taliban (at least not the main branch that’s currently running Afghanistan) as a terrorist organization.
When you said that I thought they might, I was actually pretty sure it was the case, but on looking into it that doesn’t seem like they do, at least not officially.
Some other countries do, and there are a couple other Taliban splinter groups and such that do make the cut.
And of course, the entire history of Afghanistan since the Cold war can probably be of best summed up as “an absolute fucking mess” full of different factions, shifting allegiances, and all of that geopolitical nonsense, but you can make a pretty compelling argument that the US sort of put the Taliban in charge there in the first place. The us backed the Mujahideen against Russia back in the day, and while they’re not exactly the same organization, there was a whole lot of overlap between former members of the Mujahideen and the people who formed the Taliban. So from one angle slapping the terrorist label on them would be kind of like admitting “we backed the terrorists”
I do find it strange I only found one mention of Taliban here: https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/
Designated in 2010. Probably because exactly what you said. The historical mess.
Sounds like you did pretty much the same bit of googling I did, because I also ended up there and ctrl-f’d “Taliban” and only found the one result
For anyone who doesn’t go down the rabbit hole themselves, that result is “Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)” or the “Pakistani Taliban”
Which is a group that mostly seems to be active in Pakistan (duh) and in Afghanistan near the border. TTP pledges allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, but the Afghan Taliban, at least publicly rejects that allegiance (though you can certainly make some arguments that they’re probably in cahoots, just keeping things off-the-books)
A terrorist group? Designated by who? And whom are they terrorizing?
Next headline up: Taliban sends troops to Kursk to support Russian defenders there.
This timeline just keeps getting weirder.
Just because the US invades and occupies (and then leaves) a country, doesn’t change the government.
The whole system of formal diplomatic recognition needs to die. Right now, “recognising” a government seems to be tantamount to acknowledging that government is legitimate and representative of the people. This is a very obstructive and unproductive system. It doesn’t matter whether you “recognise” a government and it also doesn’t matter what you decide to call your representatives to it. Refusing to recognise a government doesn’t mean that group of people doesn’t hold power or doesn’t actually control territory. It just prevents you from engaging with them in a constructive manner. It’s just a head-in-the-sand approach to intergovernmental relations.
If there’s a group of people calling themselves a government that holds power over a group of people or a piece of territory that you are interested in, it shouldn’t have to result in this whole game of charades. You should be able to send official representatives to that group without having to worry about offending everyone else. The whole concept of “recognition” is just nonsense.
If you read up on the history of the French Revolution (or other revolutions, but the French one is particularly dramatic) you’ll find out how hard it can be to establish who is really running the country.
