Amid reports of Turkey’s apparent agreement that it will hand over Afghanistan’s Ankara embassy to the Taliban, the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially confirmed that its diplomat, Gulmat Khan Zadran, took control of Afghanistan’s Consulate General in Istanbul on Monday.
“In addition to their diplomatic activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tries to prepare Afghanistan’s foreign political missions to provide consulate services for Afghans residing abroad with full responsibility and transparency,” the Taliban’s ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday.
The Afghan Consulate General in Istanbul will operate under Zadran, but the Taliban has not appointed him as Consul General,” a Turkish journalist wrote on Twitter.
“But Gulmat Khan Zadran has not been appointed as consul general,” Levent Kamal, a Turkish journalist, said in a tweet.
This comes only two days after the Taliban took over Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran. It provoked the Taliban critics and opposition groups voice anger at Iran’s apparent deal with the Afghan rulers.
Iran’s foreign ministry denied the country’s involvement in the new changes in Afghanistan’s embassy, adding that the “changes are internal issues of Afghanistan”.
The Taliban recaptured Afghanistan in 2021 after two decades of insurgency against the previous Afghan government and the US-led NATO forces in the country.
No country has yet officially recognised the Taliban.
