Afghan officials begin talks with Qatar-Turkish company to run airports

The second round of negotiations over the running of Afghanistan's airports has begun with a Qatar-Turkish company on Tuesday, local media reported citing Afghan officials as saying.

The Deputy Head of Civil Aviation, Ghulam Gilani Wafa, said the Afghan side will attempt to find the best choice when signing the contract, Tolo News reported.

The negotiations were held virtually due to the outbreak of the coronavirus Omicron variant.

"Today, we started online negotiations and they will continue until we reach a decision on the contract. We will start face-to-face negotiations if we feel it is needed," Tolo News quoted Gilani Wafa as saying.

According to the Afghan media, the officials said they negotiated with United Arab Emirate's company as well--to hand over the operations of Afghanistan's five main airports--and the Islamic Emirate will ultimately choose one of the companies.

"Negotiations were held with a United Arab Emirates company as well, we talked over many issues at that time; later, Turkey and Qatar showed an interest and we will continue talks with these countries," said Gilani Wafa.

This comes as international flights have not resumed with normal frequency through Kabul airport.

( With inputs from ANI )

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