English
Kabul: Qatar’s ambassador to Afghanistan on Saturday said the Kabul airport has been reopened to receive aid at this moment and it would be prepared for civilian flights soon. He said that a technical team was able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid, as reported by Al Jazeera.
The ambassador said the runway at Kabul airport has been repaired in cooperation with authorities in Afghanistan and reports suggested that two domestic flights were operated from Kabul to the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar.
Earlier, Qatar had said that experts are racing to reopen Kabul’s airport but warned it was not clear when flights would resume, with many still desperate to flee Afghanistan’s new Taliban leaders.
In the wake of their rapid takeover, the Taliban have sought to calm those fears, including pledging to let women and girls attend school and allow people to travel freely. But many are skeptical, and Britain’s foreign minister stressed the importance of engaging with the new rulers to test their promises.
In a reflection of those anxieties, dozens of women protested outside the governor’s office in the western province of Herat to demand their rights be protected. They shouted slogans and urged the country’s new leaders to include women in their Cabinet a remarkable demonstration of the transformation in women’s lives in the past 20 years.
Kabul’s airport, a major way out of the country, is now in Taliban hands but is closed, and Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani warned Thursday that there’s still no clear indication of when it will reopen.
A team of Qatari and Turkish technicians flew to Kabul on Wednesday to help restart operations at the facility, which the U.N. says is crucial to providing the country with humanitarian assistance. It remains to be seen, however, whether any commercial airlines will be willing to offer service.
Qatar, a tiny Gulf Arab sheikhdom that has played an outsized role in American efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan, said it remains in talks with other world powers to enable the capital’s airport to resume commercial flights.
