Afghan officials said the second round of negotiations over the running of Afghanistan’s airports has begun with a Qatar-Turkish company on Tuesday.

The Deputy Head of Civil Aviation, Ghulam Gilani Wafa, said the Afghan side will attempt to find the best choice when signing the contract.

The negotiations were held virtually due to the outbreak of the coronavirus Omicron variant.

“Today, we started online negotiations and they will continue until we reach a decision on the contract. We will start face-to-face negotiations if we feel it is needed,” said Ghulam Gilani Wafa.

The officials said they negotiated with United Arab Emirate’s company as well--to hand over the operations of Afghanistan’s five main airports--and the Islamic Emirate will ultimately choose one of the companies.

“Negotiations were held with a United Arab Emirates company as well, we talked over many issues at that time; later, Turkey and Qatar showed an interest and we will continue talks with these countries,” said Gilani.

This comes as international flights have not resumed with normal frequency through Kabul airport.

The Chamber of Commerce and Investment and Afghan businesspeople said that the business sector will face further harm if the situation continues.