RASC News Agency: More than sixty Afghanistan’s civil society and human rights organizations have jointly issued an open letter demanding that the Kingdom of the Netherlands immediately end the diplomatic mission of Asif Rahimi, Afghanistan’s ambassador to The Netherlands. The letter accuses Rahimi of egregiously violating diplomatic neutrality and covertly collaborating with the Taliban regime thereby betraying the interests of the Afghanistani people. A copy of the letter obtained by media outlets expresses deep concern over Rahimi’s continued tenure at the Afghanistani embassy in The Hague amid an intensifying humanitarian catastrophe and systematic human rights violations, especially the Taliban’s brutal repression of women and minorities across Afghanistan.
According to multiple credible sources, Rahimi is a former diplomat of the ousted Islamic Republic government who, from the earliest days following the Taliban’s violent seizure of power, accepted collaboration with the insurgent group. Alarming reports indicate that Rahimi receives monthly payments ranging between $20,000 and $30,000 directly from Taliban authorities. Moreover, he has traveled to Kabul multiple times to participate in high-level meetings with senior Taliban officials, further exposing the embassy’s compromised position. This controversy is compounded by earlier incidents in which the embassy’s website and social media platforms underwent significant changes most notably the removal of the flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan triggering widespread outrage among the Afghanistani diaspora and human rights defenders. Although these alterations were later reversed, official embassy statements failed to quell deep-seated concerns about Rahimi’s true allegiance.
The letter’s signatories characterize Rahimi’s conduct as a “blatant violation of the fundamental principle of diplomatic impartiality,” emphasizing that he effectively functions as an unofficial envoy of the Taliban on European soil, thereby legitimizing and enabling the regime’s atrocities from abroad. The organizations demand that the Dutch government urgently clarify the legal and political status of the Afghanistan’s embassy in The Hague and suspend its diplomatic activities forthwith should the allegations of Taliban collaboration be verified. They further warn that tolerating such breaches undermines the very foundations of human rights advocacy and seriously damages the credibility and moral authority of nations like the Netherlands, which pride themselves on upholding global human rights standards.
This issue is all the more pressing given that the International Criminal Court (ICC), headquartered in The Hague, is actively investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by senior Taliban leaders including Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Interior Minister Abdul Hakim Haqqani yet paradoxically, the Afghanistan’s embassy continues to operate in the same city under the insidious influence of the very regime under scrutiny. The continued operation of a Taliban-aligned embassy in a city central to international justice starkly exposes the global community’s failure to hold the Taliban accountable and serves as a grim reminder of the regime’s relentless grip on Afghanistan’s political and diplomatic institutions.
Until decisive actions are taken to sever the Taliban’s influence over diplomatic missions abroad, the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s international representation and by extension, the global commitment to justice and human rights will remain deeply compromised.
