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The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a significant breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers. A dayslong stand-off over charter planes at another airport had left dozens of passengers stranded and cast doubt on Taliban assurances to allow foreigners and Afghans with proper travel documents to leave the country.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media, provided the number of Westerners on board and said that two very senior Taliban officials had helped facilitate the departure. Americans, green card holders and other nationalities including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians were on the flight, the official said...
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Several passengers waiting to check into the flight earlier said their final destination was Canada. "We are going to Canada, we are Canadians," one man told an Al Jazeera Arabic reporter at the airport in English. Another two men also said they were bound for Canada.
Other international flights are expected in the coming days.
The Taliban's acting foreign minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaki, thanked Qatari special envoy Mutlaq Al-Qahtani for his country's efforts in restarting flights out of Kabul International Airport, the Taliban said in a statement posted on an official account.
A Qatari technical team has been in the country for the past 10 days, helping Afghan officials restore airport operations.
An engineer on the Qatari team told a news conference Thursday that the airport was now 90% fixed. "There are some technical issues that we cannot fix, but in total all the equipment is working," said Mohamed Naeemi, speaking alongside Al-Qahtani.