French officials allegedly met with representatives of the Taliban in Qatar on Thursday in their first official meeting since Afghanistan fell to the Islamist group.
The existence of the meeting was revealed by Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen on the social media platform Twitter on Friday.
The Islamist stated that the Taliban-declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) met with French envoy François Richier and his delegation in the Qatari capital of Doha.
“Situation of the airport was also discussed in detail,” Shaheen said, adding: “The IEA delegation reiterated that every Afghan with legal documents can travel abroad and proper facilities will be provided to all Afghans for their travel after the opening of the civilian part of the Airport.”
France was expected to end all evacuation operations from Kabul airport on Friday evening following the deadly terrorist attack on Thursday in which over a hundred people were killed, including 13 U.S. troops, in explosions claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group.
Clément Beaune, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, stated that France may continue evacuations beyond Friday night but that the French government was”cautious” on the issue.
According to a report from the French magazine Le Point, the French Foreign Ministry has yet to comment on meeting with the Taliban after the magazine contacted them for comment on the alleged Qatar summit.
While there have been some meetings between the Taliban and representatives of Western governments, most notably a meeting involving U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns, no Western nations have made moves to officially recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan yet.
As France continued evacuations, it saw issues with those they have evacuated, with at least one man evacuated from Kabul thought to have ties to the Taliban. He was placed under house arrest after arriving in France.
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