The Qatari’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani’s visit to Afghanistan in September marked the first high level visit since the Taliban takeover on August 15. He held meeting with the Taliban leadership including the Prime Minister of the newly declared ‘caretaker’ government Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund and urged him to have a greater interaction with the international community and “to involve all Afghan parties in national reconciliation”. A few days earlier, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken chose to go to Qatar for his first official visit since US withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31 and thanked the tiny Gulf country for its “outstanding support”. Because of its ties with both Washington and Taliban, Doha is uniquely placed to play an important role in Afghanistan and Qatar has lapped up the opportunity with the help of a soft power approach.
Qatar Registers its Soft Power Presence in Afghanistan (Anwesha Ghosh, VIF)
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