Afghan Taliban are holding negotiations with Turkey and Qatar to manage the affairs of Kabul Airport as the US troops have left Afghanistan.
The Taliban are in talks with Qatar and Turkey about the management of Kabul airport and should secure the airport as soon as possible so that people who want to leave Afghanistan can do so using commercial flights, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says.
“The Security Council resolution about securing the airport must be implemented. There are talks under way with the Qataris and Turks about management of the airport. We must demand that access to the airport is safe,” Le Drian said on France 2 television.
Le Drian also said that France must continue to put pressure on the Taliban but is not negotiating with them.
Taliban fighters on Tuesday took charge of Kabul’s airport as the last US soldiers flew out of the country. Celebratory gunfire and fireworks lit up the Kabul night sky.
Speaking to reporters from Kabul airport on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: “We do not have any doubt that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a free and sovereign nation.
“America was defeated… and on behalf of my nation, we want to have good relations with the rest of the world,” he said.
He also promised Afghans “will protect our freedom, independence and Islamic values”.
US President Joe Biden set a deadline of August 31 for the withdrawal of US troops.
UK nationals still in Afghanistan in ‘low hundreds’: Raab
The number of British nationals still in Afghanistan is in the low hundreds, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says.
“I know that the number of UK nationals, the particular responsibility of the Foreign Office, is now down at a very low level … low hundreds given that we taken in total 5,000 out,” Raab told Sky News.
