Jan 19, 2022: According to a report by Reuters, Afghanistan’s acting prime minister, Mullah Hassan Akhund, on Wednesday called on international governments to formally recognize the country’s Taliban administration, and told a news conference in Kabul that all conditions had been met.

“I urge all governments, especially Islamic countries, to start recognition,” Akhund said in his first major public broadcast since taking office in September.

Foreign powers are reluctant to recognize the Taliban administration, which occupied Afghanistan in August, while the US-led Western powers have frozen billions of dollars worth of Afghan banking assets and cut off development funding which was once the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy.

Akhund and other officials from the Taliban administration made an appeal at a news conference attended by UN officials to ease sanctions on the country, citing the growing economic crisis and the freezing of funds.

“Short-term aid is not the solution; we must fundamentally try to find a way to solve the problems,” he said.