Washington praised the Qatari role and the Taliban's cooperation in evacuating Americans and Western nationals from Afghanistan, after the first commercial flight from Kabul to Doha on Thursday, while several parties and personalities called for accelerating humanitarian work and not linking it to political developments.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken welcomed the Taliban’s facilitating the evacuation of US citizens and foreigners as part of its commitment to allow anyone who wishes to leave Afghanistan, and considered their departure from Kabul Airport yesterday evening, Thursday, on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha “the result of close dealing with US partners, especially the State of Qatar.” ".
"We emphasized that similar additional steps by the Taliban would receive a positive view from the international community," Blinken said. "Our team in Doha and our Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad have been in constant contact with Taliban officials in recent days," Blinken said.
"Our message to the Americans who remained in Afghanistan is that we will help them leave if they wish to do so," he added.
First commercial flight
Yesterday, Thursday, Hamad International Airport in the Qatari capital, Doha, landed the first international commercial flight from Kabul Airport since the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan at the end of last month.
On board the Qatar Airways plane, 200 passengers, including Americans and Afghans who hold US green residency cards, in addition to other nationalities, arrived.
Mutlaq bin Majid Al-Qahtani, the special envoy of the Qatari Foreign Minister, announced yesterday, Thursday, that Hamid Karzai Airport is ready for international navigation.
The Qatari envoy described the flight that took off from Kabul on Thursday as a regular flight and not an evacuation operation, and added that another flight would take off on Friday.
The Undersecretary of the Afghan Ministry of Information, Zabihullah Mujahid, valued the Qatari role in restarting Kabul Airport and delivering humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.
"We thank the Qatari brothers who helped us operate Kabul Airport and deliver humanitarian aid estimated at 50 tons of medical and food aid. We also thank the rest of the countries that provided assistance," he said.
He added that the Qatari technical team "gratefully made efforts to restore the airport's ability to carry out its tasks," and reassured the world that the maintenance work would be completed soon.
Qatar has played the role of the main mediator between the Taliban and the international community in the past few years, and many countries - including the United States - moved their embassies from Kabul to Doha, following the Taliban's takeover of the Afghan capital.
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Earlier Thursday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price welcomed the Taliban's cooperation and facilitation of the commercial flight organized by Qatar Airways from Kabul to Doha.
Price said his country is working and coordinating closely around the clock with Qatar to facilitate the safe departure of Americans and Afghans at risk, thanking Qatar for its efforts to facilitate operations at Kabul Airport.
On the other hand, Price said that the government formed by the Taliban is not inclusive and does not reflect what the United States and the international community had hoped to see. He added that the Taliban had not fulfilled what they promised in their transitional government, and said it was important to form a new inclusive government.
For her part, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Qatar is an important mediator between the United States and the Taliban.
In an interview with MSNBC, Psaki said the United States is working with Qatar to operate Kabul airport and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
Psaki also said during her daily press briefing at the White House that the Taliban "have been cooperative and facilitated the departure of American citizens, permanent residents, and Afghans who have helped the United States in their fight over the past several years."
In turn, US National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said - in a statement - that "the Taliban was cooperating in facilitating the departure of US citizens and holders of permanent legal residence on charter flights," and that the movement "showed flexibility and a practical and professional approach in dealing with this issue."
Unconditional Aid
In Pakistan, Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani expressed his country's thanks to the Taliban for allowing civilian flights from Kabul Airport.
He added in a press conference in Islamabad with his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, that the conduct of these flights means that Afghanistan has a free crossing for people, from which they can travel and return as they wish.
He also called for separating humanitarian aid to Afghanistan from political developments.
The Qatari official said, "We thank the Taliban for making the airport work to serve passengers. Today, we were able to operate the first flight loaded with passengers, and we thank them for their cooperation, and this is what we expected from them, to see their positive words translated into actions."
He considered that "there is a lot to be done," and said, "We encourage the Taliban to be more participatory and bring all Afghans under one umbrella."
For his part, Qureshi stressed in the press conference that the provision of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan should not be linked to any political conditions, and called on the international community to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan, and warned of what he called a "proxy war."
He said that "humanitarian work must continue without restrictions," adding that "the world is watching what is happening in Afghanistan and is following up on the political file and insisting on matching the actions and words of the Taliban."
For his part, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan praised Qatar's role in supporting the peace process in Afghanistan.
"The Qatari role was effective in Afghanistan," he said in a statement after his meeting with the Qatari foreign minister in Islamabad.
Imran Khan also called on the international community to stand in solidarity with the Afghan people and to participate positively in finding lasting peace and achieving stability in Afghanistan, as he put it.
UN warning of a humanitarian catastrophe
In the same context, Deborah Lyons, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Afghanistan, said during a Security Council session on the Afghan crisis, that the United Nations "is very grateful for the efforts of the governments of Turkey and Qatar to restore work at Kabul Airport so that it is qualified to operate flights."
Lyons warned during a UN Security Council session that cutting economic aid to Afghanistan would lead to "an economic recession that could plunge millions of people into poverty and hunger, and could lead to a massive refugee wave (...) and set Afghanistan back several generations."
For her part, the Director of the United Nations Development Program in the Asia and the Pacific, Kani Winyaraja, announced Thursday that Afghanistan - an already poor country - is threatening to sink further into poverty if quick measures are not taken.
She explained in a press conference that 72% of the Afghan people currently live below the poverty line (ie on less than one dollar a day), and this percentage may reach 97% by the middle of next year.
"We are facing a complete collapse of development as well as humanitarian and economic crises" hitting Afghanistan, she said.
She noted that a study conducted by the United Nations Development Program shows that "we are on the path of a rapid and catastrophic decline in the lives of the most vulnerable."
The United Nations Development Program believes that the reasons for this worrying situation are: the Corona epidemic and the political transition in light of the freezing of foreign currency reserves abroad and the increasing pressures on the banking system, as well as the high rate of poverty.