TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Qatar not responsible for Kabul airport without Taliban agreement
Change Size
Q
atar warned Tuesday it would not take responsibility for Kabul airport without "clear" agreements with all involved, including the Taliban, about its operations.
Doha has become a key broker in Afghanistan following last month's withdrawal of United States forces, helping evacuate thousands of foreigners and Afghans, engaging the new Taliban rulers and supporting operations at Kabul airport.
"We need to make sure that everything is addressed very clearly otherwise [...] we are not able to take any responsibility of the airport [if] all these things are not addressed," Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at a press briefing.
"Right now the status is still [under] negotiation because we need to have an agreement that's clear for everyone for all the parties and who is going to take care of the technical [side], who's going to take care of the security aspects.
"There is a possibility for collaboration with other countries if needed, but until now the discussion is only among us and Turkey and the Taliban."
Since the US pullout, Qatar Airways planes have made several trips to Kabul, flying in aid and Doha's representatives and ferrying out foreign passport holders.
A Pakistan International Airlines jet landed in Kabul Monday, marking the first international commercial flight since the US withdrawal.
It then made a return flight to Islamabad with about 70 people on board — mostly Afghans who were relatives of staffers with international organizations, according to airport ground staff.
Kabul's international airport was ransacked after US-led forces finished a chaotic evacuation of more than 120,000 people, and the Taliban have since scrambled to resume operations with technical assistance from Qatar and other nations.
Qatar Airways operated several charter flights out of Kabul last week, carrying mostly foreigners and Afghans who missed out on the evacuation.
An Afghan airline resumed domestic services on Sept. 3. But the resumption of regular commercial flights will be a key test for the Taliban, who have repeatedly promised to allow Afghans with the right documents to leave the country freely.
The US pulled its final troops out of Afghanistan on Aug. 30, ending its longest war just ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that prompted its invasion.
Wealth check
Meanwhile, the Taliban are investigating the accounts of former high-ranking Afghan government members to check for ill-gotten gains, officials said Tuesday.
The investigation may lead to the freezing of assets and accounts of former civil servants, ministers and lawmakers, an official at Da Afghanistan Bank told AFP, asking not to be named.
A manager of a private bank confirmed a team of "Taliban auditors" had been deployed to the organization to check the accounts of selected former government officials.
Corruption was widespread and rampant under the administration of former president Ashraf Ghani, and tens of millions of dollars of aid money is believed to have been siphoned out of the public purse.
Ghani himself was accused of taking millions with him when he fled to Abu Dhabi on Aug. 15 as the Taliban entered Kabul, but he has denied the claims and says he is ready to prove his innocence.
On Tuesday, several Taliban officials posted video on their social media accounts purporting to show millions in cash and gold ingots recovered from the Panjshir residence of former vice president Amrullah Saleh.
The video, which could not be independently verified, showed Taliban fighters sitting on the floor and counting cash and gold apparently found in suitcases.
One fighter says they discovered about US$100,000 the day after Panjshir fell to the Taliban, and a further $6.2 million and 18 gold ingots in a later search.
Saleh had holed up in Panjshir after the Taliban took Kabul, and the remote highland valley was the last province to fall to the hardline Islamists.
The investigation into possible illegal assets comes as Afghanistan is in the grip of a major cash crisis, with people limited to withdrawing the equivalent of just $200 a day from personal accounts — and having to queue for hours even to do that.
Even before the Taliban takeover, government salaries were frequently paid late — and in the case of rural workers there is a months-long backlog.
People are resorting to selling their household goods to raise money to pay for essentials, and bustling second-hand goods markets have mushroomed in most urban centers.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have halted Afghanistan's access to funding, while the US has also frozen cash held in its reserve for Kabul.
Ajmal Ahmady, former acting governor of the Afghan central bank, tweeted last week that the country no longer had access to around $9 billion in aid, loans and assets.
