Afghan Taliban delegation in Turkey for high-level talks

ANKARA, Turkey — A high-level delegation of Afghanistan’s caller Taliban rulers has arrived successful Turkey for talks with Turkish officials, the Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

The meetings successful the superior of Ankara would beryllium archetypal betwixt the Taliban and elder Turkish authorities officials aft the insurgent radical seized power of Afghanistan successful August arsenic U.S. forces pulled retired of the state aft 2 decades of war.

The Taliban delegation is led by Amir Khan Muttaqi, the acting overseas minister, according to a Taliban spokesman.

Turkey has been moving with Qatar to re-open the airdrome successful Kabul, the Afghan capital, for planetary travel. However, repairs are needed earlier commercialized flights tin resume.

There are presently 2 hose carriers, Islamabad-based Pakistan International Airlines and Afghanistan’s privately-owned Kam Air, which run chartered flights to and from Afghanistan but astatine precocious costs to relationship for the insurance.

On Thursday, PIA suspended its flights to Kabul hours aft the Taliban threatened to prohibition the airlines unless they trim costs. Abdullah Hafeez, spokesperson for Pakistan’s nationalist airline, said “the concern connected the crushed is not conducive for planetary formation operations,” without elaborating.

However, determination were reports that immoderate PIA unit were mistreated by Taliban officials aft refusing to discount summons prices. There were nary contiguous details oregon remark from either PIA oregon the Taliban.

However Hafeez did telephone the ambiance successful Kabul “charged,” and blamed the exorbitant summons prices connected the outgo of security PIA is required to bargain to alert into Afghanistan. A one-way PIA summons from Kabul to Islamabad costs astir $1,500, up from $300 earlier the Taliban seized powerfulness successful August, said Hafeez.

The sojourn to Ankara comes aft Taliban leaders held a bid of meetings with the United States, 10 European nations and European Union representatives successful Doha, the Qatari capital, earlier this week.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said astatine a virtual gathering betwixt the Group of 20 astir almighty economies that the planetary assemblage should support the channels of dialog with the Taliban open, to “patiently and gradually steer” them toward establishing a much inclusive government.

Erdogan said Turkey, which already hosts much than 3.6 cardinal Syrians, cannot carnivore an influx of migrants from Afghanistan, informing that European nations would besides beryllium affected by a caller question of migrants.

The Taliban accidental they privation planetary recognition. They pass that weakening their authorities volition impact information and spark an adjacent bigger exodus of migration from the country.

The current, Taliban-appointed Afghan government, which the erstwhile insurgents accidental is lone interim, is comprised solely of Taliban figures, including respective blacklisted by the United Nations.

Gannon reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed successful Islamabad contributed to this report. This communicative has been corrected to amusement the household sanction of the Taliban-appointed curate is Muttaqi, not Mutaqi.