Afghanistan's voting rights in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly has been suspended due to outstanding membership dues.

The Afghan mission to the United Nations revealed to Afghanistan International that dues have not been paid for over three years.

Naseer Faiq, the acting head of Afghanistan's UN mission, explained that countries failing to pay dues for more than two years lose their voting privileges according to the charter and operational procedures of the General Assembly.

This suspension prevented Afghanistan from voting in the recent resolution recognising the state of Palestine last Friday.

Historically, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs managed these payments, which were then transferred to the UN by the Afghan delegation.

The annual UN membership fee for countries typically amounts to about two hundred thousand dollars.

Afghanistan is one of six countries which has failed to pay the UN dues for two consecutive years. Despite this, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia have managed to retain their voting rights. However, Afghanistan, along with Ecuador and Venezuela, has been barred from voting in General Assembly sessions.