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With Kabul’s airport inoperable, private efforts to help Afghans fearful of Taliban retaliation are focused on arranging safe travel across the landlocked country’s borders with Iran, Pakistan and Central Asian countries.
“The Taliban are talking with Qatar and Turkey about how to run Kabul airport,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was quoted as saying. Reuters, Wednesday (1/9/2021).
But it may take days or weeks to complete the negotiations.
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A Pakistani official in Torkham, on the border with Pakistan east of the Khyber Pass, said large numbers of people were waiting on the Afghan side for the gate opening.
Thousands of people also gathered at the Qala Islam post on the border with Iran, witnesses said.
“I feel being among Iranian security forces brings a kind of relaxation to Afghans when they enter Iran, compared to the past,” said one Afghan among the group of eight who crossed.
More than 123,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in US-led airlifts after the Taliban seized the city in mid-August. Yet tens of thousands of Afghans at risk remain in the country.
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