UN: Afghanistan’s Taliban want to address General Assembly

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations says the Taliban, Afghanistan’s new rulers since last month, have challenged the credentials of Afghanistan’s former U.N. ambassador and are asking to speak at the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level meeting of world leaders that began Tuesday. The question now facing U.N. officials comes about a month after the Taliban swept to power as the U.S. prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of August. The Taliban stunned the world by taking territory with surprising speed and little resistance from the U.S.-trained Afghan military. The Western-backed government collapsed. A special UN committee must now meet and make a decision.