After defeating foreign forces and the republic government, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan swept across the country on August 14, 2021, seizing power as they went. A day later Kabul fell to the IEA, which has ruled the country ever since.

In this time, the Islamic Emirate was able to resist internal problems and international sanctions and achieve progress in governance and diplomatic relations with other countries.

The IEA has however been unable to achieve global legitimacy as the government in power.

But relations have improved over the past two years, especially with countries in the region. A number of which have accepted IEA diplomats.

All of Afghanistan’s neighbors, except Tajikistan, have recognized IEA diplomatic missions in their countries.

China was one of them, and became the first country to officially accept an IEA ambassador in Beijing.

Kazakhstan was another country that took a step to remove the IEA for its list of terrorist groups.

The IEA has however remained a ‘caretaker’ government in this time.

As yet, no country has officially recognized the IEA government.

International sanctions, including travel bans of IEA officials, and banking sanctions remained in place. In addition, Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations has not yet been handed over to the IEA.

The acting government, meanwhile, deems the past three years to have been successful and emphasizes that despite global pressure on the IEA, it has been able to deal with problems and achieve success in various fields.

IEA spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in relation to recognition that many countries have official interaction with the ruling authorities and this in itself indicates recognition of the Islamic Emirate.

“We are in official interaction with China, the region, neighbors and Islamic countries. About 40 countries have official interactions with Afghanistan, they have embassies, consulates, consular services,” said Mujahid.

In these three years, according to the general amnesty decree of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada, the invitation to political figures and officials of the former government, who left the country after the fall of the republic system, to return to

Afghanistan continued, and during this period, hundreds of people including teachers and academics, political figures and former officials returned to the country through the Contact Commission.

However, in his speeches in the last three years, Hibatullah Akhundzada has always stressed the importance of strengthening the Islamic system and warned that they would not give in to any pressure in this respect.

In a recent speech, Akhundzada still asked the members of the Islamic Emirate to stay united and avoid differences and divisions.