Taliban Deny Deal With Turkey, Qatar to Jointly Run Kabul Airport

KABUL (Sputnik) - The Taliban* denied on Saturday that a deal had been reached with Qatar and Turkey that would allow the two to jointly run airports in Kabul and other Afghan cities.

Imamuddin Ahmadi, a Taliban transport ministry spokesman, was cited as saying by the Tolo News agency that no final agreement had been reached after negotiators from the two countries met with Talibs on Thursday.

“The joint Turkish-Qatari technical team came to Kabul on Thursday and held meetings with technical teams of the Islamic Emirate,” Imamuddin Ahmadi, spokesman of the ministry, said. "These meetings will continue and in the near future they will reach an agreement in light of the country’s national interests

The Tolo report also cited political analysts who stated that should Qatar and Turkey take control of the airport operations, international flights to Kabul would resume.

Earlier, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported that joint technical groups would meet in the coming days to lay out details of how they planned to operate Afghanistan's five international airports.

Afghanistan has some 24 airports, the majority of which are designed for domestic flights.

*The Taliban is an organisation under the UN sanctions over terrorist activities