Saudi Foreign Minister to meet PM Modi, EAM Jaishankar; likely to discuss Afghan crisis

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, whose diplomacy played a significant role since the dramatic took over of the Taliban on Afghanistan, is scheduled to visit India. The top diplomat will arrive in New Delhi on Saturday evening for a 3-day visit. According to the reports, this would be his first visit to New Delhi after the Afghanistan crisis and would probably be focused on providing humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. As per his schedule, the top Saudi diplomat would meet his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on September 19 at Hyderabad House in Delhi. Subsequently, Al Saud would chair a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 20.

In August, Jaishankar also held bilateral talks with Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir. It is worth mentioning that the Saudi Foreign minister would also discuss the role of Qatar, Pakistan and Turkey in diplomatically engaging with the Islamic Emirates. Notably, the trio has been involved with the Taliban regime to declare the extremist group as the "legitimised ruler" of the war-torn country. Though Qatar has involved its aeroplanes in evacuating the desperate Afghans from the war-ravaged country, leading a massive applaud from international communities, experts believe that their involvement would not help the country in the long run. Earlier this month, Islamabad also sent a commercial flight to Afghanistan to rescue people. On the other hand, Qatar took over the control of technical operations in Kabul.

Earlier this week, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani arrived in Kabul also landed at Kabul airport to meet with leaders of the Taliban. Experts also believe the other stakeholders are restraining themselves from recognising the new Taliban regime in Afghanistan; on the other hand, Pakistan is in a hurry to recognise somehow and boost the caretaker "Islamic Emirate". Hence, international strategists believe that the visit of Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud would pave the path of fruitful discussion over the unfolding conditions in Afghanistan. 

Taliban dramatic takeover

Meanwhile, a series of incidents unfolded after the Taliban captured the national capital, Kabul, on August 15, leaving the people in tatters. On August 26, five days before the United States pulled out its soldiers from Afghanistan, two suicide bombers killed over 200 Afghans and other nationals who flocked the Kabul airport to flee the war-torn country. In the deadly attack, 13 US military personnel were also killed. Since then, several international organisations have been working tirelessly to help the Afghans reeling under the Taliban regime.

With inputs from ANI

Image: Twitter/@FaisalbinFarhan/@DrSJaishankar