The United States is “working closely” with its allies in Turkey and Qatar to quickly reopen Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
“We are working closely with our partners Qatar and Turkey to help get Kabul airport up and running as quickly as possible,” he told State Department reporters.
Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will visit Qatar in a joint bid to thank the emirate for its ongoing efforts in Afghanistan, they announced Friday.
Senior Biden administration officials will leave Washington on Sunday and Blinken said he would meet with Doha leaders “to express our deep gratitude for all they are doing to support the evacuation effort.”
“I will also have the opportunity to meet with Afghans, including our local staff at the Kabul Embassy, who is now in Doha safely to prepare for their trip to the United States,” Blinken said.
Qatar played a critical role in facilitating peace talks between the US and the Taliban and served as a key intermediary amid the hasty evacuation work they concluded earlier this week.
During his trip that will also take him to Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Austin “will meet with regional partners and thank them for their cooperation with the United States as we evacuated Americans, Afghans and citizens of other nations from Afghanistan. “, the Pentagon said in a statement.
While Austin will stay in the region to meet with other key U.S. allies, Blinken will leave Qatar for Germany, where he will visit Rammstein Air Base to meet with Afghans seeking refugee status with the U.S. and the Americans who facilitate this effort at the military facility.
Blinken will also meet in person with German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass and hold a virtual ministerial meeting with him and representatives from 20 other countries, who “all have an interest in helping to relocate and resettle Afghans and maintain the Taliban. to their commitments, “the top diplomat said.
The Taliban recently declared war on Afghanistan after taking control of Kabul’s presidential palace, forcing Western nations to fight to evacuate their citizens amid chaos at Kabul International Airport Hamid Karzai as frantic Afghans search an exit.
Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on August 15: “The Taliban have won with the trial of their swords and weapons and are now responsible for the honor, property and self-preservation of their compatriots,” after flee the country when the militants entered. the capital virtually unopposed, saying it wanted to prevent bloodshed. Over the next few hours, hundreds of Afghans desperate to leave in a hurry for Kabul airport.
“Today is a great day for the Afghan people and the mujahideen. They have witnessed the fruits of their efforts and sacrifices for 20 years,” Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Al-Jazeera, said. based in Qatar. TV. “Thank God the war is over in the country,” he said.
It took the Taliban just over a week to take control of the country after a lightning strike that ended in Kabul as government forces, trained for two decades and equipped by the United States and others at a cost of billions. dollars.