The radical Taliban movement that seized power in Afghanistan (banned in the Russian Federation) plans to resume direct flights with Russia in the nearest future. This was stated by Zabihullah Mujahid, representative of the radicals and deputy minister of information and culture in the interim Afghan cabinet, in an interview with TASS correspondent.
"We are planning to resume international air flights from Kabul airport, including flights to Russia," he said.
Air service between Russia and Afghanistan was suspended after the Taliban entered Kabul without a fight on August 15 and president Ashraf Ghani left the republic. On September 6, the Taliban declared that they had taken control of all the territory of Afghanistan, and on September 7, they announced the composition of the provisional government, which has not been recognized by any country so far.
The Kabul airport's runway and terminals were badly damaged because of the chaos in the airport and the August 26 terrorist attack near it. Technicians from Qatar and Turkey have been helping the airport operations since late August. The first planes left the airport for the Afghan cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Herat on September 4. On September 9, the first international flight from Kabul to Doha since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan. Since the second half of September, commercial charter flights to Kabul have also been available from Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS