MADRID, November 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –
An investigation by the British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’ has revealed that the Taliban fundamentalist movement earned millions of euros during the construction of the World Cup stadiums in Qatar thanks to the subcontracting of teams to erect the facilities.
According to officials from the Taliban’s political office in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the movement took advantage of money linked to the peace talks with the US and the United Nations that had been taking place in this city since 2013 to “buy and then subcontract heavy machinery for the tournament infrastructure.
“The Taliban invested a lot in the construction of the World Cup and the tournament was the goose that laid the golden eggs. They were paid millions,” according to this source from the newspaper, who lived in the city during the negotiations, which finally frustrated when the Taliban they ended up conquering Afghanistan by arms in 2021.
The aforementioned money came from “stipends” assigned to members of the Taliban political office to live in the country and facilitate negotiations, which ended up being partially used to purchase this equipment to resell it later at a much higher price.
“Some owned between six and ten pieces of heavy machinery and earned up to 11,000 euros per machine per month,” according to this source.
Other sources, former Afghan diplomats in Doha, have assured the newspaper that this practice “was an open secret.” “The Taliban political office was being well paid by the Qatari regime and they invested these salaries in construction equipment for the World Cup,” they add.
The Government of Qatar has limited itself to commenting to ‘The Telegraph’ that “the political office (of the Taliban) and its activities were coordinated with the United States, which had full visibility over all the arrangements” and ensures that “all the measures adopted or the arrangements made complied with Qatar’s obligations under international law and relevant laws and regulations.”
