President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today said Turkey has held its first talks with the Taliban in Kabul.
AFP quoted Erdogan saying that Ankara was still assessing the group’s offer to run the Afghan capital’s airport.
“We have held our first talks with the Taliban, which lasted 3.5 hours,” Erdogan told reporters. “If necessary, we will have the opportunity to hold such talks again.”
A couple of days ago, Reuters reported that the Taliban have asked Turkey for technical help to run Kabul airport after the departure of foreign forces but insist that Ankara’s military also withdraw fully by the end-August deadline.
The conditional request by the Taliban leaves Ankara with a difficult decision over whether to accept a hazardous job, the wire agency quoted a Turkish official as saying.
Turkey, a Muslim country, was part of a NATO mission in Afghanistan and still has hundreds of troops at Kabul airport.
