KABUL (Agencies): Qatar, Turkiye, and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) agreed on “several key issues” to operate the airport in the Afghan capital Kabul. “The delegations of the State of Qatar, the Republic of Turkey and the Afghan caretaker government concluded in Doha a tripartite meeting on the management and operation of Kabul International Airport,” a Qatari Foreign Ministry statement said.
“They agreed on several key issues on how to manage and operate the airport,” the ministry added. The ministry said that the meeting in Doha came as a continuation of previous talks, the latest round of which took place in Kabul last week. The final round of negotiations will take place next week, it added.
Flights were suspended at Afghanistan’s main international airport in Kabul after the IEA took over power last August and the US troops destroyed equipment and a radar system at the facility before leaving the country. In late December 2021, diplomatic sources told Anadolu Agency that Turkiye and Qatar agreed to jointly operate the Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. After talks between committees from both countries, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Turkish and Qatari companies to operate the airport in collaboration on the basis of equal partnership.
Meanwhile, a special “charity train” carrying 750 tonnes of emergency goods under the coordination of Turkiye’s government has left for Afghanistan from the Turkish capital Ankara. The train left Turkiye and is bound for a journey of 4,168 kilometres (3,590 miles), according to Turkiye’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu.
“We have two trains with 47 wagons, carrying approximately 750 tonnes of charity goods,” Karaismailoglu said, adding that the train will reach Afghanistan after first passing through Iran and Turkmenistan. Citing the start of an Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul cargo train last December, he said the charity train will travel the corridor in 16 days. The train is carrying aid from 11 humanitarian organisations coordinated by the state Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD). Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu stressed that 12.9 million children in Afghanistan are in need of aid due to extreme weather conditions.
Turkiye will always side with the people of Afghanistan, he said, adding: “For the past four years, we have been the country, the nation that has given the most aid in the world.” Aid agencies describe Afghanistan’s plight as one of the world’s most rapidly growing humanitarian crises. According to UN humanitarian coordination office OCHA, half the population now faces acute hunger, over 9 million people have been displaced, and millions of children are out of school. Previously, the UN and its partners launched a $4.4 billion funding appeal to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan in 2022. UN chief Antonio Guterres has also warned that millions of Afghans are on the verge of death, urging the international community to release Kabul’s frozen assets and jump-start its banking system.
