Taliban Ask to Address UN General Assembly, Name New Envoy

The Taliban have demanded representation at UN General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders this week, challenging the credentials of Afghanistan’s former UN envoy. Taliban-appointed foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi made the request in a letter sent to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. In the letter, Muttaqi asked to speak in the course of the assembly’s annual session, and nominated the group’s Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s new permanent representative to the UN, Dujarric said Wednesday. The letter also indicated that Ghulam Isaczai, the accredited Afghan ambassador, no longer represents Afghanistan at the…