UN Delays Representative Status of Afghan Taliban and Myanmar Military Junta Again, to be Considered Again Next Year

Illustration of the United Nations. (Wikimedia Commons/Tom Page)

JAKARTA - The decision on the fate of representatives of the Afghan Taliban government and the Myanmar military junta to the United Nations has been postponed for the second time, but could be reconsidered in the next nine months, according to a report by the UN Credentials Committee.

The 193-member UN General Assembly will on Friday approve the report, which also delayed a decision on the rival claim to Libya's seat at the United Nations. The UN credentialing committee is made up of nine countries, including Russia, China, and the United States.

The UN Credentials Committee met on December 12 and agreed, without a vote, to "suspend the consideration of credentials" for Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Libya "and to reconsider these credentials at a future date in its seventy-seventh session", ending mid-September next year.

The postponement of the decision leaves the current envoys remaining in their countries' seats, diplomats said, launching Reuters on December 15.

Competing claims were made for the seats of Myanmar and Afghanistan with the Taliban administration and Myanmar's junta pitted against envoys of the governments they toppled last year.

UN acceptance of both the Taliban government and the Myanmar junta would be a step towards the international recognition that both seek.

The UN General Assembly last year supported delaying decisions on Myanmar and Afghanistan's credentials.

The Taliban seized power in mid-August last year from the internationally recognized government. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, the ambassador of the government they toppled remained a UN envoy after a credentials committee delayed its decision on the seat.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar junta seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year.

As well as Afghanistan and Myanmar, counterclaims were also made this year to Libya's UN seat, which is currently held by the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, by the "Government of National Stability" headed by Fathi Bashagha and supported by the parliament in the east of the country.