Taliban Welcome Japanese Embassy's Partial Reopening

New Delhi, Oct. 24 (Jiji Press)--Sirajuddin Haqqani, interior minister of the Taliban-led interim Afghan government, has welcomed the recent partial reopening of the Japanese Embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The Afghan interior ministry announced Sunday that Haqqani said in a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Afghanistan Takashi Okada that the partial reopening is an effective step to strengthen the bilateral ties. After the Taliban seized Kabul in August last year, the Japanese embassy temporarily closed and has since operated at a temporary office in Doha, the capital of Qatar. According to Japan's Foreign Ministry, senior officials of the embassy started stationing in Afghanistan in rotation around mid-September this year to gather information on the local situation while having its main office for Afghan matters in Doha. At the meeting, Okada promised Japan's continued support and cooperation to Afghanistan while Haqqani guaranteed the safety of the embassy's operations, the interior ministry said. At a regular press conference in Tokyo Friday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the embassy is "conducting necessary operations in Kabul on a limited scale with the minimum number of staff." Many countries, including Japan, have not recognized the Taliban-led interim government as a legitimate government. END