The international community could recognize the new government in Afghanistan once it has been recognized domestically, the European Union’s special envoy said on Thursday.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Ariana News, Tomas Niklasson said the EU wants Afghanistan to develop in a positive way where it is not a threat to other countries and where the rights of its people are respected and they have a say about the future of the country.

“Once the Afghan people recognize its government, for the time being interim government in whatever shape, there will be much greater willingness on the international community also to do so,” Niklasson said.

“Domestic recognition first, Afghan-owned and Afghan-led as we used to say, which could then be followed by international recognition.”

Niklasson also said that “most Afghans do not have enough food to put on the table,” and EU members have scaled up the humanitarian assistance “massively.”

He, however, said that the economic crisis has to be addressed as well.

On security, the envoy said that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) is partly right when it says the security situation is better than it was before.

“But there are still concerns about some organizations such as ISIS-K. We have seen some deadly attacks in the last few weeks,” Niklasson said.