Qatar played an outsized role in US efforts to evacu𝄹ate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan.
Now the tiny Gulf Arab state is being asked to help shape what is next for Afghanistan because of its ties with both Washington and the Taliban, who are in charge in Ka🉐bul.
Qatar꧟ will be among global heavyweights on Monday when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts a virtual meeting to discuss a coordinated approach for the days ahead, as the US completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country.
The meeting will also include Cana🎀da, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the European Union and NATO.
Qatar has also reportedly been asked by the Taliban to provide civilian technical assistance at Kabul's international airport, once the𓂃 US military withdrawal is complete on Tuesday. Authorities in Qatar have not commented on the reports.
Meanwhile, international UN agencies are asking Qatar for help🌠 and support in delivering aid to Afghanistan.
Qatar's role was somewhat unexpected. The nation, which shares a land border with Saudi Arabia and a vast underwater gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran, was supposed to be a transit poi🐎nt for a just a few thousand people airlifted from Afghanistan over a timeline of several months.
After the surprisingly swift Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15, the United States looked to Qatar to help shoul🐽der the evacuations of tens of thousands in a chaotic and hurried airlift.
In the end, nearly 40 per cent of all evacuees were moved out via Qatar, winning its leadership heaps of praise from Washington. International media outlets also leaned on Qatar f𒉰or their own staff evacuations.
The United States said Saturday that 113,500 people had been evacuated from Afghanista🐠꧃n since August 14.
Qatar s🌞ays a little more than 43,000 had transited th🎉rough the country.
Qatar's role in the evacuations reflects its position as host of the Middle East's biggest US military base, but also its decision years ago to host the Taliban's political leadership in exile, giving it some sway꧙ with the militant group. Qatar also hosted US-Taliban peace talks.
Assistan♍t Qatari Foreign Minister Lolwa al-Khater acknowledged the political gains scored by Qatar in the past weeks, but rebuffed any suggestion that Qatar's efforts were purely strategic.
“If anyone assumes that it's only about political gains, believe me, there are ways to do PR that are way easier than risking our people there on the ground, way easier than us having sleepless night﷽s literally for the past two w🦩eeks, way less complicated than spending our time looking after every kid and every pregnant woman," she told The Associated Press.
For some of the most sensi🧸tive rescue efforts in Afghanistan, Qatar conducted the operation with just a few hundred troops and its own military aircraft.
Qatar evacuated a girls' boarding school, an all-girls robotics team and journalists working for international media, among others. Qatar's ambassador accompanied convoys of buses through a gauntle☂t of Taliban checkpoints in Kabul and past various Weౠstern military checkpoints at the airport, where massive crowds had gathered, desperate to flee.
In all, al-Khater said Qa𓆉tar secured passage to the airport for some 3,🦩000 people and airlifted as many as 1,500 after receiving requests from international organizations and vetting their names.
Al-Khater said Qatar was uniquely positioned 💟because of its ability to speak to various parties on the ground and its willingness to escort people through Taliban-controlled Kabul.
“What many people do🃏n't realize is that this trip is not a phone call to Taliban,” she said.
“You𝔍 have checkpoints by the US side, by the British side, by the NATO side, by the Turkis𝕴h side ... and we have to juggle with all of these variables and factors.”
The Taliban have promised amnesty to all th𓄧ose who remain Afghanistan. Still, many of those desperate to get out — including civil society activists, those who had worked for Western armies and women afraid to lose hard-won rights — say they do not trust the militants.
▨In addition, other armed groups pose a growing threat.
Last week, an attacꦚk by an Islamic State suicide bomber killed more than 180 people outside Kabul airport.
The US-led evacuation process ♋has been marred by miscalculation and chaos, and that spilled over to the al-Udeid base in Qatar.
The hangars at al-Udeid were so crammed that the United States halted flights from Kabul f🎉or several hours durin✅g the peak of evacuation efforts on August 20.
Nearby countries, like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, accepted several thousand evacuees to alleviate pressure on th🎃e American base.
At al-Udeid, Afghan f꧙amilies evacuated by the US waited for hours in poorly ventilated, humid hangars in the middle of the dese⛎rt with inadequate cooling.
A video posted by The Washin💯gton Post showed hundreds of evacuees in one such hangar with only one lavatory and people sleeping on the ground.
Qatar built an emergency field hospital, additi🌠onal shelters and portable washrooms to help plug the g𝓀aps. In addition to what the US military is distributing, the Qatari military is handing out 50,000 meals a day, and more still by local charities.
Qatཧar Airways has also provided 10 aircraft to transport evacuees from its capital, Doha, to other countries.
Around 20,000 evacuees remain in Qatar, some expecting to leave in a matter o⭕f weeks and others in months to come as they await resettlement elsewhere. Seven Afghan women have delivered babies since their arrival in Qatar.
Qatar is a🐽bsorbing only a very small number of evacuees, among them a group of female students who will be offered scholarships to continue their eduಌcation in Doha.
Qatar is also hosting some evaꦍcuees in furnished apartment facilities built for the FIFA Worldꦆ Cup, which will be played in Doha next year.
The energy-rich nation is a tiny country with a little more than 300,000 citizens, where expatriate foreign workers on te😼mporary visas far outnumber the local population.
The White House says President Joe Biden personaꩲlly expressed his appreciation to Qatar's 41-year-old Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani by phone and noted that the US-led airlift would not have been possible without Qatar's support facilitatinꦯg the transfer of thousands of people daily.
It's the kind of positive publicity that millions of dollarsꦡ spent by Gulf Arab states on lobbying and public relations could scarcely guarantee.
(With PTI Inputs)
