Taliban Still Not Allowing Foreign Military Guards Kabul Airport, Turkish Foreign Minister: Loving Private Security Companies

JAKARTA - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt avuşoğlu said the task of securing Kabul airport or Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan could be given to private security companies, if the Taliban insisted on not allowing foreign military presence.

In an interview with NTV, Mevlüt avuşoğlu said Taliban or Afghan forces can ensure security outside the airport. Meanwhile, the international community needs a trustworthy structure for airports to operate.

Mevlüt avuşoğlu said Turkey was cooperating with Qatar and the United States (US), on the condition that airports could reopen for regular flights needed to deliver humanitarian aid, evacuate stranded civilians and rebuild diplomatic missions in Kabul.

However, he said safety remained a major issue, stressing commercial flights could never resume until airlines and airline insurance companies felt that conditions were safe enough.

"In my view, Taliban or Afghan forces can ensure security outside the airport," Mevlüt avuşoğlu quoted the Daily Sabah as saying September 7.

"But inside, there could be a security company that the international community trusts or all other companies," he said.

He said that even if airlines, including Turkish Airlines, wanted to fly there, insurance companies would not allow it.

"Currently, planes can take off and land at the airport. Some flights have restarted. Some nationals are left there. We also have citizens there. We have evacuated more than 1,400 people, 1,060 of whom are our nationals," avuşoğlu said, adding 19 Turkish technicians were continuing their work at the airport.

Turkey has held talks with the Taliban in Kabul, where they still have a diplomatic presence, and could help operate the Afghan capital's airport.

Meanwhile, US officials say they no longer control airspace in Afghanistan, with the main airport in Kabul that the US military used in August for evacuation, in disrepair.

With the Taliban in control of Kabul's airport after the US completed its withdrawal on August 31, focus will now shift from the giant Western evacuation operations seen in the last two weeks, to the group's future plans for a transport hub.

Turkey has offered to run security after the withdrawal of foreign troops, but the Taliban has repeatedly said it will not accept a foreign military presence in Afghanistan after August 31. Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey was still assessing the Taliban's offer.

On Monday the Taliban said technical teams from Turkey and Qatar were working to get all possible flights from Afghanistan's Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport restarted.

The Taliban say they are working to repair Kabul's airport, where only domestic flights continue and only during the day for now.

A Taliban spokesman said US troops destroyed equipment before departing, including a critical radar system. The US says its troops destroyed military equipment, but left behind equipment useful for running civilian airports, such as fire trucks.

Technical experts from Qatar and Turkey have begun repairs, although it is not clear when the airport will be operational.