US envoy praises Qatar for Afghanistan flights

Passengers disembark from a Qatar Airways plane arriving in Doha on Sept. 2, 2021,from Kabul, the first international commercial flight since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. (REUTERS)

More than 250 foreign nationals have left Afghanistan in the past three days, says Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington’s special envoy and the architect of an often criticized deal with the Taliban.

The deal signed last year provided for the safe withdrawal of U.S and NATO troops but say his critics was heavily weighted in favor of the hardline-Islamic movement.

In a series of tweets Khalilzad praised both Qatar, whose national airline carried out the flights and the “Taliban’s cooperation in this important effort,” for the recent departure of foreign nationals from Afghanistan.

2/3 Our thanks go out to Qatar for its help facilitating these flights, and we welcome the Taliban’s cooperation in this important effort.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) September 10, 2021

“We will continue to engage the government of Qatar, the Taliban, and others to ensure the safe passage of our citizens, other foreign nationals, and Afghans that want to leave,” Khalilzad tweeted.