According to the French minister of Europe and foreign affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Taliban are lying and France will not establish any relations with the recently formed government in Afghanistan. Le Drian was quoted as saying this before travelling to Qatar for talks on Sunday (12 September) on future evacuations from Afghanistan.
“The Taliban said they would let some foreigners and Afghans leave freely and spoke of an inclusive and representative government, but they are lying”, the minister told the media representatives on Saturday (11 September).
“France refuses to recognise this government or have any kind of relationship with this government".
In recent weeks France has evacuated about 3,000 people from Afghanistan. To do this, the French began preparations as early as mid-April, four months before the Taliban took power in Kabul.
For new evacuation operations, there have been talks with the Taliban to set up an air bridge. The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, spoke of "careful negotiations". Qatar was also involved in the talks.
