The Afghanistan delegation's decision to withdraw from the UN General Debate was "their own decision." "After the country's envoy appointed by the ousted Ashraf Ghani-government withdrew from speaking to the world on the final day of the high-level meeting, a spokesperson for the Secretary General said. "They decided to leave the Afghan delegation on their own. That is something I am unable to remark on. At the daily press briefing Monday, Spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, stated, "Obviously, the General Assembly high-level week is an opportunity for every member state to address the world in a sense, and we wish for every (of) those member states who have that opportunity to take it."
Dujarric was responding to a question on Afghanistan's decision to withdraw from the UNGA and that no one will be speaking on behalf of the country at the annual gathering of world leaders. Ghulam Isaczai, Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, was scheduled to speak on Monday's final day of the UN General Debate. Still, he withdrew his participation over the weekend.
Last week, the Taliban wrote to Guterres, appointing their spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan's UN ambassador and asking to attend the UN General Assembly's high-level 76th session. In the letter to Guterres, Isaczai further stated that the Permanent Representative's mission is complete and no longer represents Afghanistan.
"It's not really a conversation. It's not so much a dialogue as it is information, instructions from a permanent mission on how to get on the speaker's list "When asked if there had been any discussion with the Afghan delegation about their wish to withdraw from the General Debate,,, he responded no. Even though prior tentative speakers' lists had the countries' diplomats named to speak at the General Debate, Afghanistan and Myanmar are not mentioned on the newest list of speakers for the last day of the General Debate. We received an e-mail from them requesting that their name be removed from the speaker's list, which we honored.
