German FM speaks out against Taliban’s speech at UN General Assembly

BERLIN (TASS): German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas spoke out against the speech of representatives of the radical Taliban movement during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly. The head of the FRG foreign affairs agency said this on Wednesday in New York.
“I don’t think [Taliban] speaking at the UN will be beneficial,” the DPA quoted Maas as saying . He noted that it is now important for the Taliban to ensure respect for human rights, especially of women, clearly distinguish themselves from terrorist groups, and also include representatives of other categories of the population in the government. How relations with the new government in Kabul will be built further depends on this, the head of the FRG Foreign Ministry emphasized.
“In my opinion, speaki-ng at the UN General Ass-embly <…> is not a suitable basis for real progress on this issue,” concluded Maas.
On Tuesday, UN Secret-ary General’s spokesman Stephane told TASS that the Taliban had approached the UN, expressing their intention to speak during the General Assembly High-Level Week, and sent Sohail Shahin to be confirmed as Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the organization. The decision on the candidacy of the country’s permanent representative to the UN, as well as on the accreditation of its delegation for the high-level week, is made by the accreditation committee of the 76th session formed last week.