Akm Shehabuddin Kisslu: The United Nations General Assembly on Friday approved postponing – for the second time – a decision on whether the Afghan Taliban administration and the Myanmar junta can send a United Nations ambassador to New York.
The 193-member General Assembly approved without a vote the decision by the U.N. credentials committee. The nine-member committee includes Russia, China and the United States.
“The committee decided to postpone its consideration of the credentials pertaining to the representatives of Myanmar, Afghanistan and of Libya,” said Guyana’s UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who chairs the credentials committee.
The postponement of decisions on Myanmar, Afghanistan and Libya leaves the current envoys in place. But the credentials committee said it could “revert to consideration of these credentials at a future time in the seventy-seventh session” of the General Assembly, which ends in September next year.
Competing claims were again made for the seats of Myanmar and Afghanistan with the Taliban administration and Myanmar’s junta pitted against envoys of the governments they ousted last year. U.N. acceptance of the Taliban administration or Myanmar’s junta would be a step toward the international recognition sought by both.
The committee also deferred a decision on rival claims to Libya’s U.N. seat.
A rival claim was also made this year for Libya’s U.N. seat – currently held by the Government of National Unity in Tripoli – by a “Government of National Stability” led by Fathi Bashagha and backed by a parliament in the country’s east.
The Taliban seized power in mid-August last year from the internationally recognized government. Myanmar’s junta seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February last year.
Croatia beats Morocco 2-1 to finish in third place at World Cup
