Qatar's special envoy announces gradual reopening of Kabul airport for commercial flights

HE Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Counterterrorism and Mediation in Conflict Resolution Dr Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani announced the gradual reopening of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport for commercial flights on Thursday.

"We are happy to announce for the first time that there will be international flight coming from Doha to Kabul, which is commercial or charter flight. It is going to have passengers - locals and foreigners, travelling from Kabul to Doha and from Doha to their respective destinations," Dr Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani told reporters at Kabul airport.al-Qahtani stressed that the airport would operate regular flights and not evacuations and called it a "historic day" for the airport, which was 'fit for navigation'."This is not evacuation anymore, I think today we see free passage and free movement of passengers - foreigners and locals, with valid passport and documentation," al-Qahtani said.Some 200 passengers, including Afghans and US citizens, took off from Kabul airport on a Qatar Airways commercial flight for the first time on Thursday after a US-led evacuation ended on August 30.Officials said that communications, landing devices as well as the radar at the Kabul airport were fully operational. Turkish and Qatar technical teams were involved in the reconstruction of the airport, which was damaged during the chaotic evacuations of tens of thousands of people to meet the US troop withdrawal deadline of August 31.Engineer Muhammad Al-Nuaimi said that the Qatari team was assigned by the General Authority of Civil Aviation to attend and evaluate the technical conditions, navigation and communications devices, radars and automated landing. Meanwhile, Taliban's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid thanked the State of Qatar for the assistance it provided and its technical team for its efforts in restarting the Kabul airport."We thank Qatari brothers who helped us operate Kabul Airport and deliver humanitarian aid, an estimated 50 tons of medical and food aid. We also thank all the other countries that provided assistance," he said.