The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) said on Friday that progress has been made in negotiations with Qatar and Turkey to manage the country’s airports but that no final agreement has yet been reached with the two countries.
The IEA’s deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi said an IEA delegation, led by the acting foreign minister, to Doha recently, focused on areas of concern which were identified and that efforts were now being made to resolve the issues.
Among those who met with Turkish and Qatari officials was the IEA’s acting minister of transport and civil aviation.
“The meetings and negotiations were good, and the issues that postponed the negotiations and the points that are complicated were identified as the same points, and the same points will be examined to solve the problems, but no agreement has been reached yet,” said Karimi.
Meanwhile, the First Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar recently met with businessmen in Doha and told them he had instructed transport and aviation ministry officials to prioritize negotiations on airport management.
“In the discussion of airports, especially Kabul airport, we have talks inside and outside with a number of countries, but we have not yet reached an agreement with anyone, and we are considering it and informing the aviation authorities to take this issue seriously,” said Baradar.
This comes after several meetings in the past few months between the technical teams of the transport and aviation ministry and delegates from Turkey and Qatar.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that Turkey and Qatar were trying to deploy troops to Afghan airports, but the Islamic Emirate has denied the allegations, stressing that their talks with Qatar and Turkey are of a technical nature and there is no talk of a foreign troop presence in the country.
Fazal Mohammad Saber, Chargé d’affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Ashgabat, and Faryal Leghari, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Turkmenistan, met on Saturday to discuss strengthening bilateral trade relations, addressing issues faced by Afghan refugees, and facilitating the visa issuance process for Afghans in Pakistan.
The Afghan Embassy in Ashgabat said in a post on X that both sides emphasized the need to expand relations between the two countries to address ongoing issues.
During the meeting, Leghari described the “good” relations between Kabul and Islamabad as important and pledged to convey the contents of the meeting to officials in her country.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate’s Ambassador in Islamabad and the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan also discussed bilateral relations between Kabul and Tehran, regional developments, Afghan refugees, and related topics.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Mohammad Reza Bahrami, Director General for South Asia at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held an online meeting to discuss the latest developments in Afghanistan.
In a post on X, Sadiq said that the meeting was constructive, and both sides expressed their concerns about terrorism as a shared challenge and reviewed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation and regional engagement with Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan has decided to accept an ambassador from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to Astana in the near future and to upgrade its diplomatic mission in Kabul to ambassadorial level, an Afghan official said on Saturday.
The decision was conveyed by Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister to his Afghan counterpart and is being viewed as a significant signal of renewed political engagement between the two countries, Zia Ahmad, Director of Public Communication of Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry, said.
Russia is the only country that has formally recognised the IEA government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Pakistan have all designated ambassadors to Kabul, in a step towards recognition.
Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has expressed openness to allowing an Islamic Emirate-appointed Afghan representative to operate in Berlin, even without formally recognizing the government.
Dorbindt has told Welt TV that he is prepared “to find the appropriate agreement with those responsible in Afghanistan to enable” repatriation of convicted criminals of Afghan nationality.
“If the Taliban (IEA) send Afghan representatives here who may then serve in Berlin, then that can work even without diplomatic recognition. And I would have no problem if we had a contact person here on site for problems we want to solve,” he said.
In August, Germany resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, after pausing deportations following the IEA’s takeover in August 2021, with the support of what Berlin said were “key regional partners”.
The United Nations, however, has criticised the German interior minister’s plan to deport criminals to Afghanistan, citing human rights issues.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has also stated that there would be no relations with the IEA beyond the current contacts.
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