Norway Refuses To Hand Over Afghan Embassy To Taliban In Response To Hibatullah's Decree

Friday, 12/06/2024

Espen Barth Eide, Norway's foreign minister, announced that he would not accept the group's representative as Afghanistan's ambassador to Oslo due to the Taliban's treatment of women.

He said that his country's relations with the Taliban would decline and the Taliban's demand to take over the Afghan embassy in Oslo would not be accepted.

However, Espen Barth Eide said on Thursday that his country would accept only one "Afghan official" to handle "consular affairs, visas and other urgent issues".

He did not specify whether the Afghan official belongs to the Taliban administration or will hand over consular affairs to one of the diplomats of the former government.

Norway closed the Afghan embassy in Oslo on September 12 at the request of the Taliban. For the past three years, the Afghan embassy has been run by diplomats loyal to the former Afghan government.

After the closure of the embassy in Oslo, there were reports that Norway was planning to hand over the embassy to the Taliban.

"We have made it clear to the Taliban that this is not possible," Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said, AFP reported. "Recently, new restrictions have been imposed in Afghanistan, which have specifically affected Afghan women and girls," he added.

The Taliban leader this week closed private and public medical institutes to girls and women. Medical institutes were the only institutions where women continued to be trained in midwifery and nursing.

Norway is one of the few European countries that has had relations and cooperation with the Taliban since the beginning. However, the Taliban's extensive restrictions on women have caused the country to reconsider its relations.

Many human rights organisations and some countries have called the Taliban's increasing restrictions on women and girls a clear example of crimes against humanity and gender apartheid.

More News