Qatar has agreed to represent the U.S. in Afghanistan, promising to open a U.S. interests section in the Qatari Embassy in Kabul.
The interests section will also handle services for American citizens still in Afghanistan and will assume responsibility over the vacant American diplomatic facilities there.
"Given the Afghan situation, it isn't going to be an easy job," Al-Thani said."The situation in Afghanistan overall is a complicated situation. So definitely, there are a lot of complicated issues that need to be worked out and need to be settled." Qatar has been a key player in discussions between the Taliban and the United States for many years. It hosted months of U.S.-Taliban peace talks and has since been critical to the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan. Roughly half the people who have left the country have transited through Qatar.