Kabul airport fully ready for domestic, international flights: Taliban
text_fields
Kabul: The Kabul airport is now fully operational for international flights and all airliners can resume services, a spokesman of the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
The airport has been closed since the last evacuation flight took off on September 1 after the militant group seized control of Afghanistan on August 15.
"As the problems at Kabul International Airport have been resolved and the airport is fully operational for domestic and international flights, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan assures all airlines of its full cooperation and expects all airlines and countries that had previously flown to Kabul to resume their flights as before," spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a statement on Sunday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again assures full cooperation on its part in conducting flights more than 40 days after Taliban takeover, Xinhua news agency quoted Balkhi as further saying.
Earlier on Sunday, the Taliban in Afghanistan had appealed for international flights to be resumed, promising full cooperation with airlines and saying that problems at Kabul airport had been resolved.
The statement comes as the Taliban stepped up efforts to open up the country and gain international acceptance following the collapse of the Western-backed government last month. A limited number of aid and passenger flights have been operating from the airport.
The Kabul airport was damaged with its many facilities destroyed during the withdrawal of US-led forces and American nationals on Aug. 31.
Airport authorities confirmed that the airport has received planes carrying humanitarian assistance from Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Pakistan as well as a number of commercial flights from Pakistan, Iran and Qatar in recent weeks despite a long suspension in the flights since the Taliban takeover.