Norway announced on Thursday that it would refuse to accredit any new Afghan envoy appointed by the Taliban as relations remain frozen in protest at the treatment of women and girls.
The Afghanistan embassy in Oslo had been run by official loyal to the former western-backed government until it closed on September 12.
Norwegian authorities said the mission closed to comply with a request from the Taliban authorities in Kabul, who regained in Afghanistan in 2021 but are not formally recognized by any country.
“We have made it clear to the Taliban that there is no question of accepting a new Afghan ambassador in Oslo” if that was their intention, Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said.
“Recently new restrictions have been imposed (in Afghanistan) particularly affecting Afghan women and girls,” he added.
“For this reason” Norway is reducing its relations, the minister said.
Norway would only accept an Afghan official to handle “consular affairs, visas and other urgent matters,” he said in a statement.
The relations downgrade comes after a new hardening of conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan, who have already been banned from formal education after the age of 12 and gradually driven out of public spaces.
The Afghan mission in London also shut in September after the Taliban authorities dismissed its staff.
