Janice R. Andrews
As of the end of September, the Afghan mission in London will no longer be open because the Taliban fired the staff. The UK government asked for this to happen. It is another big change in foreign relations since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021.
The west London office was staffed by people hired by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government before the Taliban took over. It will stop working for good on September 27. Zalmai Rassoul, the Afghan ambassador to the UK, thanked his coworkers and fans and said that the mission had been going on for a long time, since 1922.
In July, the Taliban said they were cutting ties with a number of missions that were set up by the previous government in Afghanistan. This came after the Taliban’s foreign ministry said it wouldn’t recognise any papers from Afghan offices in the UK and other European countries because they weren’t working together well enough.
It is said that the UK government told Afghan officials to shut down the office because they didn’t want to give up power to the Taliban. Reports say that Afghan officials in London have been told to either leave the country or ask for political refuge.
A spokesman for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office confirmed the shutdown and said it was because the Taliban fired embassy staff. As it has done since the Taliban took over, the UK government does not recognise the Taliban as Afghanistan’s official government.
As other Afghan missions in Europe prepare to close, the closing of the Afghan embassy in London shows how difficult it is to get along with the Taliban government. The mission in Washington, D.C., had to close, but some others have kept going without any help from the Taliban. This situation shows how uncertain things are still for Afghan foreign posts around the world after Kabul fell in August 2021.
