DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates has held addresses with the Taliban to run Kabul field, going up against Gulf rival Qatar in a political hassle for influence with Afghanistan’s new autocrats, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter.
UAE officers have held a series of conversations with the group in recent weeks to bandy operating the field that serves as landlocked Afghanistan’s main air link to the world, the foreign diplomats grounded in the Gulf region said.
The addresses demonstrate how countries are seeking to assert their influence in Taliban- ruled Afghanistan indeed as the strict Islamist group largely remains a transnational leper and its government is not formally recognized by any country.
The Emiratis are keen to fight political leverage enjoyed there by Qatar, according to the sources who declined to be named due to the perceptivity of the matter.
The Qataris have been helping run the Hamid Karzai International Airport along with Turkey after playing a major part in evacuation sweats following the chaotic US pullout in August, and have said they’re willing to take over the operations.
Yet the Taliban has not yet formalized an arrangement with Qatar, the four diplomats said.
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An elderly Emirati foreign ministry functionary said the UAE, which preliminarily ran Kabul field during the US-backed Afghan democracy, “ remains married to continuing to help in operating” it to ensure philanthropic access and safe passage. Abu Dhabi also backed recent evacuation sweats.
The Taliban and Qatari authorities didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Two of the diplomats said the Taliban has also sought fiscal backing from the UAE, though they added it wasn’t clear if this was related to the field conversations.
The Emirati foreign ministry functionary, Salem Al Zaabi, director of transnational security cooperation, didn’t respond to a question on whether the UAE was considering furnishing fiscal help to the Taliban.
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One crucial issue that’s still to be resolved between the Taliban and implicit field drivers is who would give security at the point, the four diplomats said. The Taliban say they don’t want foreign forces in the country following their return to power after two decades of war.
Still, Qatari special forces are presently furnishing security within the field’s border, the diplomats added, while Taliban special forces were patrolling areas outdoors.
So far countries have been reticent to formally honor the Taliban’s government, criminating the group of countermanding on pledges to uphold the rights of women and nonages.
Yet Qatari officers have prompted lesser transnational engagement with the Taliban to help impoverished Afghanistan from falling into a philanthropic extremity. Gulf countries have also raised concern that the US pullout would allow Al Qaeda to recapture a base in Afghanistan.
While there’s a little marketable benefit for any driver, the field would give an important- demanded source of intelligence on movements in and out of the country, according to the four diplomats, who said that since the pullout numerous countries have demanded real-time information.
Qatar and the UAE have had strained relations for times as they contended for indigenous influence. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, and their abettors transacted Qatar over three times, cutting off political, trade, and transport ties, criminating Doha of supporting terrorism — a charge that it denies. The disagreement was resolved in January this time.
Qatar has long been the gateway to the Taliban, with Doha hosting the group’s political office since 2013 and accommodations with the US in early 2020 that led to the pullout.
Last week, Qatari officers strengthened their position by subscribing to an accord to represent American political interests in Afghanistan.
The UAE has maintained ties with the Taliban too, according to two of the diplomats. They said the country had been home to some members of the group in recent times, including Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who they added lived in the Sharjah emirate with his family from at least 2013. Stanikzai is now deputy foreign minister in the Taliban administration.
Al Zaabi didn’t respond to questions on the UAE’s relationship with Stanikzai. The Taliban didn’t incontinently respond to queries on Stanikzai living in the UAE.
The Taliban said this month that the UAE had restarted its delegacy in Kabul. The UAE has not reflected.
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