Some media reports said on February 27 that Iran has handed the Afghan embassy in Tehran over to the Taliban. The Iranian foreign ministry denies this.
Thus, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Monday that Iran has handed the Afghan embassy in Tehran over to the Taliban, becoming the latest country to accept Taliban-appointed diplomats without recognizing their 18-month-old government in Kabul.
According to media reports, Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran was “formally” handed over to the Taliban on Sunday afternoon.
According to VOA, the Taliban foreign ministry said Monday that it had dispatched a seven-member team of “experienced diplomats, led by a newly appointed chargé d’affaires" to the Iranian capital to formally assume the charge of Afghanistan’s diplomatic mission there.
The statement described the development as an “important and cooperative step” in bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Iran.
“We believe that with the new appointments, we would witness transparency in the affairs of the embassy as well as expanded relations in various fields between the two Muslim and brotherly countries,” the Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said, according to VOA.
Sources say the Taliban has appointed Fazl Mohammad Haqqani, the first secretary of the former ambassador of Afghanistan in Iran, as the group’s charge d’affaires in Tehran.
Iran International reported on February 27 that the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA) has slammed Iran’s move in ceding the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban. In a statement published by the NRFA spokesperson Sibghatullah Ahmadi, the group said the action was taken despite the Front’s concerns about its “adverse consequences”.
“Nonetheless, [Iran] allowed the representatives of the illegitimate and the terrorist group of Taliban to enter the diplomatic mission of Afghanistan,” the statement reads, according to Iran International.
The NRFA also warned that the political presence of the Taliban in Iran, with its “dark history” is “perilous”, especially for the millions of refugees who have sought protection in Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Tasnim news agency and Afghanistan’s Khaama Press news agency and Afghanistan International reported on Monday that the Iranian Foreign Ministry has denied any involvement in any changes to the handover and development of the Afghanistan embassy in Tehran.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry reportedly stressed that the recent development is part of the internal affairs of the embassy.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran issued a statement on Sunday that read, “The issue of handing over and transformation of the Afghan embassy in Tehran is an internal matter and related to Afghanistan, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran has not entered into the matter by any means.”
It said the Iranian Foreign Ministry had not received any documents, equipment, or other supplies from the Afghan Embassy in Tehran.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi claimed in written comments to VOA that to-date, several countries have allowed the Taliban to appoint staff to and manage Afghan diplomatic missions in their respective territories. They reportedly include Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia, Turkiye, Qatar, Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
