How the Taliban’s fight for global recognition is playing out in a power struggle over the Delhi embassy

Afghanistan’s current ambassador and his former second-in-command are vying for control of the country’s embassy in Delhi, and the result could have big ramifications for the Taliban’s global recognition. They both sit down – separately – with Arpan Rai, to explain how things got to this point

The current Afghan ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay (left), and his former head of trade, Qadir Shah (right), in India (Sourced/The Independent)

No nation in the world has formally recognised the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan since the Islamist group stormed Kabul and seized control of the country by force in August 2021.

At the centre of the group’s efforts to force global recognition have been hostile takeovers of Afghan embassies around the world, each time with the quiet complicity of the host nation. This pattern has played out in China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and a number of central Asian states – and the Taliban had hoped that key regional power India would be next.

The current Afghan ambassador in New Delhi was appointed in 2020 by the Western-backed Ashraf Ghani administration. Like other Ghani appointees still occupying diplomatic compounds around the world, Farid Mamundzay has been cut off from essential lines of funding from Kabul, but insisted he would continue to represent the true democratic spirit of the Afghan people – and await the Taliban’s downfall.