Saudi Arabia reopens Kabul's consular section

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday reopening the consular section of its embassy in Kabul months after closing it following a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, ARY NEWS reported.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry made the announcement which was carried by the state news agency. “The decision stems from the Kingdom’s keenness to provide all consular services to the Afghan people,” the foreign ministry said.

The Kingdom has previously called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to urgently convene an extraordinary ministerial meeting to discuss the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan and pathways for humanitarian response.

Yesterday, Pakistan backed an initiative from Saudi Arabia to convene an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Afghanistan besides also offering to host the event in Islamabad.

Speaking in a video shared from the Twitter handle of the Foreign Ministry, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that they fully support the convening of an extraordinary meeting of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Minister on mulling over the Afghanistan situation on December 17.

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“I hope that OIC members will respond to it positively as Afghanistan is one of the basic members of the organisation and needed help more than ever,” the foreign minister said while highlighting the humanitarian crisis that is brewing in the neighbouring country as winter approaches.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers would be meeting in Islamabad where they would be discussing the situation in Afghanistan.

“I am ready to welcome the foreign minister of the OIC member states,” he said.