DUBAI, UAE – Qatar played an excessive role in U.S. efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. The small Gulf Arab state is now being asked to help set up what is coming to Afghanistan because of its ties to Washington and the Taliban, who are at the helm of Kabul.
Qatar will be one of the world heavyweights on Monday when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts a virtual meeting to discuss a coordinated approach for the coming days as the US completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan after the capture of the country by the Taliban. The meeting will also include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the European Union and NATO.
According to reports, the Taliban have asked Qatar to provide civilian technical assistance at Kabul International Airport, once the U.S. military withdrawal on Tuesday is completed. Qatar authorities have not commented on the reports.
Meanwhile, international agencies of the United Nations are asking for help and support from Qatar to deliver aid to Afghanistan.
The role of Qatar was a bit unexpected. The nation, which shares a land border with Saudi Arabia and a vast underwater gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran, was supposed to be a transit point for a few thousand people transported by air from Afghanistan. on a multi-month calendar.
After the surprisingly rapid capture of the Taliban in Kabul on August 15, the United States looked to Qatar to help prevent the evacuation of tens of thousands on a chaotic, precipitous airlift.
In the end, almost 40% of all evacuees were relocated through Qatar, earning the leadership a lot of praise from Washington. The international media also relied on Qatar for its own staff evacuations. The United States said Saturday that 113,500 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 14. Qatar says just over 43,000 had traveled through the country.
Qatar’s role in the evacuations reflects its position as host to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, but also its decision years ago to welcome the Taliban’s political leadership. in exile, giving him influence with the militant group. Qatar also hosted peace talks between the US and the Taliban.
Qatar’s Deputy Foreign Minister Lolwa al-Khater acknowledged the political gains Qatar has made in recent weeks, but rejected any suggestion that Qatar’s efforts were purely strategic.
“If someone assumes it’s just political gains, believe me, there are ways to do public relations that are much easier than risking our people on the ground, much easier than spending sleepless nights literally for the last two weeks, much less complicated than spending our time caring for all the children and all the pregnant women, ”she told The Associated Press.
For some of the most sensitive rescue efforts in Afghanistan, Qatar conducted the operation with only a few hundred soldiers and its own military aircraft. Qatar evacuated a boarding school for girls, an all-female robotics team and journalists working for international media, among others. The Qatari ambassador accompanied bus convoys through a glove of Taliban checkpoints to Kabul and passing through several Western military checkpoints at the airport, where massive crowds, desperate to flee, had gathered.
In all, al-Khater said Qatar secured passage to the airport for about 3,000 people and transported up to 1,500 after receiving applications from international organizations and examining their names.
Al-Khater said Qatar had a unique position because of its ability to talk to various parties on the ground and its willingness to escort people through Taliban-controlled Kabul.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that this trip is not a phone call to the Taliban,” he said. “You have checkpoints on the US side, the British side, the NATO side, the Turkish side … and we have to juggle all those variables and factors.”
The Taliban have promised amnesty to all who remain in Afghanistan. Still, many of those desperate to leave, including civil society activists, those who had worked for Western armies and women who fear losing their earned rights, say they do not trust the militants. In addition, other armed groups pose a growing threat. Last week, an attack by a Islamic State suicide bomber killed more than 180 people outside Kabul airport.
The U.S.-led evacuation process has been marred by miscalculation and chaos, which reached Qatar’s al-Udeid base.
Al-Udeid’s hangars were so crowded that the United States stopped flights from Kabul for several hours during the August 20 maximum evacuation effort. Nearby countries, such as Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, accepted several thousand people evacuated to ease pressure on the American base.
In Al-Udeid, Afghan families evacuated by the U.S. waited for hours in damp, poorly ventilated hangars in the middle of the desert with inadequate cooling. A video posted by The Washington Post showed hundreds of people evacuated in such a hangar with only one toilet and people sleeping on the floor.
Qatar built an emergency field hospital, additional shelters and portable toilets to help fill the gaps. In addition to what the U.S. military distributes, the Qatari military distributes 50,000 meals a day and even more to local charities. Qatar Airways has also supplied 10 aircraft to transport evacuees from its capital, Doha, to other countries.
About 20,000 evacuees remain in Qatar, some expecting to leave in a matter of weeks and others in the coming months while awaiting resettlement elsewhere. Seven Afghan women have given birth to babies since their arrival in Qatar.
Qatar absorbs only a very small number of evacuees, including a group of students who will be offered a scholarship to continue their training in Doha. Qatar also hosts some evicted in furnished apartments built for the FIFA World Cup, which will be played in Doha next year.
The energy-rich nation is a small country with just over 300,000 citizens, where foreign expatriate workers with temporary visas far outnumber the local population.
The White House says President Joe Biden has personally expressed his gratitude to the 41-year-old Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and noted that the U.S.-led airlift would not have been possible without the support of Qatar to facilitate the daily transfer of thousands of people.
It’s the kind of positive publicity that millions of dollars spent by Arab Gulf states on pressures and public relations could barely guarantee.
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