India to allow Ambassador-Level Taliban post to counter China
Taliban representative to the country soon, the latest step from New Delhi to improve ties with Kabul and counter China’s growing influence in Afghanistan.
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The Taliban-led government has identified two potential candidates to take charge of the Afghan embassy in New Delhi, according to officials familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. The Taliban official won’t be recognized as a diplomat by India but will be the top representative for the government there, the people said. The Taliban won’t be able to fly its flag at the embassy, at events or on official vehicles, they said.
Only a handful of countries, including China, Pakistan and Russia, have accepted diplomats from the Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and has been condemned internationally for human rights violations. India, like many other countries, severed diplomatic ties with Afghanistan at the time, closing its embassy in Kabul and limiting engagement with the country.
Najib Shaheen, a diplomat in his early 30s at the Afghan embassy in Doha, is the main contender for the ambassador-level role in New Delhi, according to officials familiar with the discussions. He has worked with the Taliban for almost a decade, and is the son of the Islamic regime’s ambassador to Qatar, they said. Shawkat Ahmadzai, who works at the
