Afghan Govt in Talks with Turkey Over Airport Security

The Afghan government is in talks over the security of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, the Office of the National Security Council (NSC) said on Wednesday. Afghanistan will decide about the issue in light of its national interests, the NSC said.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Palace has also pledged that all airports in Afghanistan will remain operational once the foreign forces withdraw from the country in the coming months.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey will need support from Pakistan, the US and Hungry to take charge of the security of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“All airports with international standards, including Hamid Karzai International Airport, will remain operational and we will decide about them,” said Rahmatullah Andar, a spokesman for the Office of the National Security Council.

“The security forces will provide security to the airports based on a regular plan,” said Mohammad Amiri, deputy spokesman to President Ashraf Ghani.

However, the Taliban said in the past that they will stand against the move to hand over the security of Hamid Karzai International Airport to Turkish forces.

“(Turkey) is a member of NATO and can play the role of a bridge between the Islamic world and Western society,” said Wais Ahmad Barmak, former Minister of Interior.

Peace talks updates:

Meanwhile, a contact group from the peace negotiating team representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan had a meeting with the Taliban side in Doha.

“Discussions were held on the management and continuation of the talks in the future,” said Ghulam Farooq Majroh, a member of the peace negotiating team representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, ICRC Head of Delegation Juan Pedro Schaerer said that with the start of intra-Afghan talks there were increased hopes for an end to the violence, but instead, the situation became fragile and the war expanded.

“Initially on certain occasions, there were a lot of hopes that the situation could change positively in Afghanistan. Soon after I arrived, there was a unilateral ceasefire both by the government and the Taliban during Eid (which) led to a lot of hope, then also when the intra-Afghan talks started, bringing a lot of hopes that a solution could be found to the conflict, unfortunately, we have seen since September last year, on the contrary, the conflict is ongoing, but the level of violence has increased,” said Juan Pedro Schaerer, ICRC Head of Delegation in Afghanistan.