Afghan envoy to China quits after 6 months of no pay

Afghanistan's ambassador to China left a colourful resignation note for his post-Taliban takeover successor on Monday -- revealing that staff had not been paid for months and that a lone receptionist had been left to answer phones. Javid Ahmad Qaem in his Twitter gave  detail how he had to scrape cash from the embassy's bank account to pay staff after the Taliban seized Afghanistan last August. "Since we did not receive salaries from Kabul for the last six months, we assigned a committee from within the diplomats to solve the financial issues," Qaem wrote in a letter to Afghanistan's foreign ministry dated January 1 but posted to social media on Monday.  Still, he left some funds for his successor. "As of today, 1st January 2022, there is around $100,000 left in the account."

The end to an honorable responsibility: I quit my job as Ambassador. It was an honor to represent AFG and my people.There are many reasons, personal and professional, but I don’t want to mention them here. I have handed over everything smoothly through a handover note. pic.twitter.com/a4A6y7yOBP

— Javid Ahmad Qaem (@JavidQaem) January 10, 2022

Many of Afghanistan's embassies are in diplomatic limbo, run by staff still loyal to the Western-backed government toppled by the Taliban. Several Afghan diplomats have abandoned their Beijing postings since the fall of Kabul, Qaem wrote, calling his resignation "the end to an honourable responsibility" in an accompanying Tweet.