IEA says progress made on airport contracts with Qatar, Turkey

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) said on Friday that progress has been made in negotiations with Qatar and Turkey to manage the country’s airports but that no final agreement has yet been reached with the two countries.

The IEA’s deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi said an IEA delegation, led by the acting foreign minister, to Doha recently, focused on areas of concern which were identified and that efforts were now being made to resolve the issues.

Among those who met with Turkish and Qatari officials was the IEA’s acting minister of transport and civil aviation.

“The meetings and negotiations were good, and the issues that postponed the negotiations and the points that are complicated were identified as the same points, and the same points will be examined to solve the problems, but no agreement has been reached yet,” said Karimi.

Meanwhile, the First Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar recently met with businessmen in Doha and told them he had instructed transport and aviation ministry officials to prioritize negotiations on airport management.

“In the discussion of airports, especially Kabul airport, we have talks inside and outside with a number of countries, but we have not yet reached an agreement with anyone, and we are considering it and informing the aviation authorities to take this issue seriously,” said Baradar.

This comes after several meetings in the past few months between the technical teams of the transport and aviation ministry and delegates from Turkey and Qatar.

Earlier this year, reports emerged that Turkey and Qatar were trying to deploy troops to Afghan airports, but the Islamic Emirate has denied the allegations, stressing that their talks with Qatar and Turkey are of a technical nature and there is no talk of a foreign troop presence in the country.