New Delhi, Sept. 3 -- Senior diplomat Deepak Mittal, an old hand on Pakistan and Afghanistan who is currently an officer on special duty in the Prime Minister's Office, was on Tuesday named India's next ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Mittal, who belongs to the 1998 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), has done two stints in the PMO under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and previously served as an ambassador to Qatar during 2020-2022. He earlier served as director in the PMO during 2014-2017. A statement from the external affairs ministry said Mittal is expected to take up his new assignment shortly. Mittal headed the crucial Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran desk during 2018-2020 and was part of the team that worked on the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor for visa-free travel by Indian nationals to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan. He was also part of the team that defended Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian national on death row in Pakistan, at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. During his stint in Qatar, Mittal led India's first formal diplomatic contact with the Taliban weeks after the group took over the country in August 2021. At the time, he met Sher Mohammed Abbas Stanekzai, then head of the Taliban's political office in Doha, and raised issues such as the safe return of Indian nationals still in Afghanistan and concerns about Afghan soil being used for anti-India activities. Mittal also played a role in India's efforts to secure the release of eight Indian Navy veterans who were arrested in Qatar in 2023 and sentenced to death, reportedly on charges of espionage. Their death sentences were commuted by a Qatari court and the men were freed in February 2024....