Taliban takes control of Afghan embassy in Tehran

ByNews Desk- The Cradle 

Iran said it had not handed the embassy over to the Taliban and that control of the diplomatic office was an "internal matter"

Officials from the Taliban-led interim Afghanistan government. (Photo credit: AFP)

The Afghan government, led by the Taliban, announced on 26 February that it appointed new diplomatic staff for the country’s embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran, The New Arab reported.

“Fazel Ahmed Haqqani appointed chargé d’affaires of the Afghan embassy in Tehran, and his team has taken possession of the embassy in Iran today,” Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Along with the new ambassador, the Taliban-led government dispatched seven individuals to Tehran to assist their people, who currently number 3.6 million and have been living as refugees in Iran for decades.

Notice

IEA-MoFA informs all Afghans residing in I.R Iran that the Afghan Embassy activities will continue in Tehran following the dispatching of newly appointed Chargé d'Affaires and diplomats with a firm commitment and spirit to serving the citizens of the two countries. pic.twitter.com/8N7e49LzLU

— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) February 26, 2023

Diplomats appointed by the US-backed government overthrown by the Taliban in August 2021 had been working in the embassy until recently, but ambassador Abdul Qayyum Soleimani and his team allegedly chose to abandon their positions after the hardline group seized control of the embassy.

The change in personnel at the embassy was praised by Afghan diplomacy as “a legitimate right of any country” and was noted as “an essential step in bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Iran.”

Afghan opposition organizations criticized Iran for “enabling” the Taliban to seize control of the embassy and warned that the action would place Afghans who had sought refuge in Iran from the hardline group in danger.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government said it had not handed the embassy over to the Taliban.

“Iran has not been involved in any way in the changes at the Afghan embassy,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“These issues are Afghanistan’s internal affairs,” the country’s diplomacy stressed.

Last week, Afghanistan’s government set up a consortium of companies, some of which are located in Russia, Iran, and Pakistan, to develop the country’s economy, according to a report published by Reuters.

The Taliban administration is seeking to create an investment plan for sectors in energy, mining, and infrastructure, according to Nooruddin Azizi, the Afghan Minster of Commerce and Industry.

Azizi told Reuters that the consortium is made up of 14 Afghan businessmen and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the foreign companies who will consider an investment of up to $1 billion in their upcoming visit to Kabul.