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After the US/NATO and the Afghan pseudo-state gave away power in Afghanistan to the Taleban, Qatar and Turkey were hoping to take over the technical and security management of the Afghan airports. But the Taleban had their qualms. Some of them were against such a deal, because Turkey is a member of NATO and it was part of the NATO occupation force that the Taleban had been fighting... and perhaps also because the Turkish plan was not very palatable to Pakistan either. Pakistan sees Afghanistan as its "strategic depth" to gain access and influence in Central Asia and "Middle Asia" and is not keen on any competition. Especially as it was feared that Erdogan could easily smuggle the Islamist terror fighters under his control in Syria and Libya into Afghanistan via the airports and use them to destabilise Central Asia.

During the negotiations with Turkey and Qatar, the Taleban – for some inexplicable reason – changed the members of their negotiating team several times and changed the terms in the texts of the agreements.

With such a deal, Erdogan dreamed of regaining a foothold on the Afghan battle chessboard to pursue his plans with regard to his "brother folk" in Central Asia. But Erdogan is pretty much alone with his Pan-Turkism and is constantly facing setbacks. In addition, the big players in the region (China, Russia, India, Iran) do not want this guy on this chessboard. And... as it soon turned out, not only the traditional big players in the region were against Erdogan's plans in Afghanistan, but also his big "half-brother" USA, in concert with "Israel" and the Gulf states, which was throwing a spanner in his works.

Following the Israeli foreign minister's trip to Ankara and subsequent talks over recent weeks, Erdogan was forced to finally abandon his plans for the airports in Afghanistan and leave them to another state. Soon afterward, Qatar also withdrew from the negotiations under US pressure, leaving the field to the United Arab Emirates (UAE)... which portends a significant and in some ways fatal development for Afghanistan and the region in the future.

After a long political back and forth between "Israel" and the Gulf States, "Israel" managed to establish a successful alliance with the UAE and conclude a number of major deals. The UAE went on to hand over the security management of its own airports, previously handled by its own company GAAC Solutions, to the Israeli security company AR Challenges Ltd. It is worth noting that GAAC also operated at the Kabul airport before the Taleban rule (from 2020 to 21 August 2021). AR Challenges is not only a world leader in the processing (recycling) of waste, but also in matters of "security" and in this sense is the extended arm of the Israeli government and its security agencies.

One thing must be pointed out: the current operation of airports in Afghanistan cannot bring any economic benefits for foreign companies. Ever since the Taleban began ruling the country, Afghanistan has been spiraling down the drain economically, socially and in terms of security. The economy has collapsed, 90% of the population lives in poverty, hunger and unemployment; serious crime, robbery, murder and violence in all forms, especially against women, are rampant; anxiety and depression dominate everyday life in society.

Simon Miles, Managing Director of Global Ground Operations and Services at Miles Aviation Consultancy, who gained extensive experience in Kabul over the past few years, was quoted as saying: “I personally can’t see much, if anything is happening there commercially until sanctions are lifted... Until then, who will fly there? Who, commercially, is interested in going there?”

Under such conditions, the management of airports by a foreign company can only be undertaken for political/geopolitical interests... and thus various states and their security agencies come into play.

News agency reports, often copied and pasted by the media, state that "Western officials say Abu Dhabi sees Afghanistan, which shares a large land border with UAE's Gulf neighbour Iran, as part of its wider backyard and so believes it has legitimate interests in the country's political and economic stability".

It is comprehensible that Pakistan also considers Afghanistan as its "backyard" since Pakistan shares a long joint border with Afghanistan. So now Afghanistan is also being considered as the UAE's backyard (anyone else out there wanting to consider Afghanistan as their backyard, please speak up!).

In all these reports, there is no mention of the link between the UAE and "Israel". While the Taleban and UAE authorities do not mention AR Challenges and "Israel" in their statements, the CEO of the company "Rafi (Rafael) Sela" talks about contracts already signed with GAAC in connection with the airports of Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Mazare Sharif in Afghanistan. 

In an interview with Ha'aretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn, Sela says, amongst other things: " ... As an example, the Taleban government handed over the control and screening services of Afghanistan’s airports to GAAC in May. This company had this responsibility before the Taleban came to power. According to the bilateral agreement of the UAE government and senior officials of the Taleban in the Afghanistan, the GAAC Company would be responsible for control and screening at Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Mazare-Sharif airports with the participation of AR Challenges technicians for the next three years. You know that technical and security services may not bring much commercial benefit to the airport management of a country, but our participation in the management of Afghanistan airports has a strategic value for the Israeli army, Mossad and other security structures. Airports are a key source of information about internal and external movements in a country."

Yes, indeed, airports are not only "a key source of information about internal and external movements in a country", but also optimal venues where one can conduct one's own "movements". This means that Mossad can now much more easily channel its agents in and out of the Islamic Republic of Iran through Afghanistan. Herat lies close to the north-eastern border with Iran, and Kandahar is not far from the country's south-eastern border.

Since 2010, seven Iranian scientists and several IRGC officers involved in Iran's nuclear program and several IRGC officers have been assassinated... Iranian authorities have always pointed the finger at "Israel".

There's not a shadow of a doubt that Mossad is behind these assassinations, although "Israel" never confirms the authorship of these acts... but also never denies it – a customary practice that "Israel" has adopted in an inflationary manner in its terrorist operations.

 

LINKS:

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2022-07-21/effort-attract-international-airlines-afghanistan-underway

https://thearabweekly.com/Taleban-agree-uae-running-kabul-airport-after-qatar-turkey-bids-fail

https://alufbenn.com/2022/07/06/ar-challenges-ltd-one-of-the-leading-and-strategic-companies-serving-"Israel"-interests/