EU Won’t Recognize Taliban Govt in Afghanistan

US, Russia both withholding judgment

European Union officials say they have a “tremendous consensus” among themselves in not recognizing the Afghan Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, citing a bad economic and food situation there.

In 2021, after decades of US occupation, the Taliban routed pro-government forces and overran the country, becoming the de facto state. Since then, there’s not been any substantial resistance.

The US is comfortable with that, and says they are warning against showing any violent opposition to the Taliban, preferring stability in Afghanistan.

As far as recognition goes, both the US and Russia are withholding judgment for the time being. The EU may say no, but the Taliban seems set to go back to the pre-9/11 status quo, and the US at least seems roughly comfortable with that.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.