The Islamic Emirate rejected a report by the Anadolu News Agency Dari saying that Turkey, Qatar and the Islamic Emirate have reached an initial agreement over running Kabul international airport.
According to the report, in addition to Kabul airport, Turkey and Qatar will also jointly run four other airports of Afghanistan, based on the agreement they have reached.
The Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, however, said the Turkish and Qatari technical teams had arrived in Kabul on Thursday and held a meeting with a technical team of the Islamic Emirate, but have not reached an agreement.
“The joint Turkish-Qatari technical team came to Kabul on Thursday and held meetings with technical teams of the Islamic Emirate. These meetings will continue and in the near future they will reach an agreement in light of the country’s national interests,” Imamuddin Ahmadi, spokesman of the ministry said.
Meanwhile, a number of political analysts said Qatar and Turkey are important countries for Afghanistan, given the overall political situation, adding if they run the airports, international airlines will resume flights to Kabul.
“Human resources from inside the country should be used in running the airports so in the future the country becomes self-reliant in this field,” said Wali Frozan, an international relations analyst.
“Qatar and Turkey’s joint work will be important both politically, economically and in terms of security for powerful countries like the European Union states, NATO, the US and the Turks themselves,” said Wais Nasiri, a political analyst.
“Fortunately, the Islamic Emirate has a very decisive stance in this regard in light of political independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country,” Latif Nazari, an international relations analyst said.
Afghanistan has 24 airports and reportedly Kabul, Balkh, Herat, Kandahar and Khost airports are designed for international flights and the rest are for domestic flights.
