In an apparent snub to its long-time backer Qatar, the Taliban regime signed a contract with a UAE-based company for handling the ground operation of three Afghan airports in Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat. The UAE and Qatar, the two Gulf rivals, have long competed for influence in Afghanistan.

The contract was signed on Tuesday with GAAC, a UAE-based company, by the Taliban’s Deputy Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Ghulam Jailani Wafa, during a special ceremony, which was also attended by the group’s Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Awarding of the contract to the UAE-based company is being seen as a snub to Qatar with whom the Taliban had been negotiating an agreement for airport operations since its return to power last year. However, the deal reportedly fell as the Qataris insisted on deploying their own security force at the airports.

Speaking at the ceremony on Tuesday, Baradar assured the investors of the security conditions in the country and said the Taliban was ready to cooperate with investing countries. He also hoped international airlines would resume their operations in Afghanistan following the signing of the contract. 

Significantly, the agreement came over a week after Baradar visited the UAE to offer his condolences on the death of the UAE’s former ruler. During his visit, he also met with UAE’s new President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Qatar is among the few countries enjoying considerable influence over the Taliban. For over a decade, Doha, where the Taliban has maintained its political office since 2013, has been seen as a bridge between the West and the group.

Negotiations for both the Doha Agreement in 2020—which later paved the way for the exit of foreign troops from Afghanistan—and the intra-Afghan dialogue between the former Afghan government and the Taliban, also took place in Doha.

However, the extent of Qatar’s leverage over the hardline Islamist group has recently come into question, as Doha failed to influence the behavior of the group on key issues, including some most concerning to western countries such as the formation of inclusive government and protecting rights of women and girls.
Notably, in recent months, the Qatari government has publicly criticized the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls, especially the ban on education and work.

During the Taliban’s first stint in power between 1996-2001, UAE was among the only three countries—Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were the other two—which had recognized the then pariah regime of the Taliban.

Following the collapse of their regime in 2001, the UAE grew closer to the US-backed government in Kabul and at the same time had maintained a secret channel with the Taliban until 2010, when its ties broke down after the Taliban sought patronage from its Gulf rival, Qatar.

(SAM)