The United Nations announced that the Taliban had pledged to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers, while the State of Qatar began operating an air bridge to transport aid to Afghanistan.

The United Nations said on Sunday that the authority in Afghanistan also pledged to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.

She added that half of the population in Afghanistan needs humanitarian assistance to survive.

The UN statements came after talks held by Martin Griffiths, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs in Kabul, with the head of the political office of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and other leaders of the movement, and they dealt with humanitarian issues.


Qatari air bridge

Meanwhile, a Qatari plane carrying urgent relief aid to the Afghan people, provided by Qatar Charity and the Qatar Red Crescent, arrived at Kabul International Airport on Sunday, with the aim of providing the urgently necessary needs.

The Qatari ambassador in Kabul, Saeed bin Mubarak Al-Khayarin, said that the arrival of this plane comes within an air bridge that will continue in the coming days.

During the past few days, other Qatari planes arrived in the Afghan capital carrying technical equipment and supplies to repair Kabul Airport.

In this context, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein said that the United States hopes that in the coming days Qatar will be able to restart international flights from the airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

In an interview with CNN, Klein indicated that the number of Americans who are still in Afghanistan is estimated at 100, and stressed that the administration of President Joe Biden will continue to work to get those who want to leave the country.

For his part, Republican Representative Mike Waltz called on the State Department to work with non-governmental organizations, which he said are trying to obtain approval to operate charter flights to evacuate Americans and allies at risk who are still hiding in many Afghan cities near airports, awaiting permission to leave the country.

Earlier, internal traffic returned to Afghan airports, and Kandahar and Kabul airports received a plane on Sunday from Herat (west), and other domestic flights were operated, including a flight to Mazar-i-Sharif (north).


Talking to the Taliban

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that her country wanted to talk to the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan about how to evacuate local contractors who worked with Germany and are still there.

For his part, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU is ready to deal with the prospective Taliban government, but added that the movement must respect human rights, including women's rights, and not let Afghanistan become a base for terrorism.

In addition to the United States, European countries - including Britain and Germany - announced that they are conducting contacts with the Taliban in order to ensure the safety of a number of its nationals or Afghans who have cooperated with it in the past years, and Western capitals set conditions - including ensuring the safe exit of these people from Afghanistan, and respect for human rights - to deal with a government that the Taliban may soon form.

Western countries, led by Washington, established a huge air bridge on August 14, after the Taliban took control of Kabul, but the evacuations ended on the 30th of the same month, without being able to transport all Afghans wishing to leave the country.

The number of those evacuated last month from Kabul reached 124,000, and the number includes American citizens, citizens of countries allied to Washington, and Afghan citizens who cooperated with foreign forces and institutions in Afghanistan.