The Afghan Business Council in the UAE met with US special envoy Thomas West in Dubai to discuss issues facing Afghan businesspeople, including the "economy, banks, health, foodstuffs, women's work," the council said. 

West is on a regional visit. The US Department of State said earlier that West will visit the UAE, Qatar and Turkey to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. 

The head of the Afghan Business Council in the UAE, Haji Obaidullah Sader Khail, said that at the meeting he thanked West “for resolving of Afghan passport issue and helping to return the Afghan new banknotes printed outside Afghanistan.”  

“This meeting was attended by the owners of private banks in Afghanistan, businesspeople and President of Afghanistan Chamber of Industries and Mines and the International Finance Corporation World Bank Group representative,” the statement said.   

“I thanked him on behalf of the traders for the arrival of passports and new printed banknotes in Afghanistan. He (West) played an important role in this regard and this was our demand in many meetings we have had over one last year with him,” Sader Khail said.  

According to the statement, West assured the council that they will work together to find suitable solutions.

“West assured the Afghan traders that we will work jointly to find a proper solution the problems that the Afghan people, traders and particularly women are facing,” said Ezatullah Nizazai, an Afghan trader in the UAE.  

“The meeting took place yesterday and many traders who are living in Dubai, and industrial businesspeople were present. The promises regarding cooperation were made in the meeting,” said Khanjan Alokozai, a member of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment (ACCI).  

The ACCI meanwhile called on the US to remove sanctions from Afghanistan’s banks.  

“The purchasing that we do outside of the countries for the big infrastructural projects--we should be allowed to purchase big electric turbines for the infrastructural projects,” said Mohammad Younus Momand, acting head of the ACCI.  

According to the Afghan Business Council in the UAE, more than 300,000 Afghans are living in the UAE.