Afghans board a US Air Force transport plane during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday the United States is on track to complete evacuations from Afghanistan by August 31, but left open the possibility of extending the deadline, saying achieving that goal depends on the cooperation of the new Taliban. rulers of the land.
The Taliban said earlier on Tuesday that all foreign evacuations from the country must be completed by August 31, and asked Washington to stop urging highly skilled Afghans to leave the country.
In comments at the White House, Biden said the United States was in a rush to meet that deadline as concerns about the threat of terrorist attacks mount.
“The sooner we’re done, the better,” Biden said. “Each day of operation carries additional risks for our troops.”
Continued coordination with the Taliban remains crucial to meet the deadline, he said, but called it a “weak situation” with a “serious risk of collapsing over time”.
Biden said he had asked the Pentagon and the State Department to develop contingency plans to meet the deadline if necessary.
The Democratic president, whose administration is under fire for handling the withdrawal, said US troops had helped evacuate 70,700 people since August 14.
Biden said his administration was working to rebuild a refugee processing system, which he said had been “deliberately destroyed” by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.
“We must all work together to resettle thousands of Afghans who will eventually be eligible for refugee status. The United States will do our part,” he said.
Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was growing concern about the risk of suicide bombings by Islamic State at the airport, which has been overwhelmed with Afghans and foreign citizens rushing to leave.
A US official said the question was no longer if, but when, terrorists would attack and the priority was to get out before it happened.
The hardline Islamist Taliban told the thousands of Afghans who gathered at the airport hoping to board that they had nothing to fear and to go home.
“We guarantee their security,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a news conference in the capital, which Taliban fighters seized from the West-backed government on Aug. 15 after most foreign troops withdrew after two decades of war. .
The Pentagon said several hundred US troops had left Kabul under a previously planned move, but it would not affect evacuation efforts.
Some Democrats in the US Congress argued that the evacuations should be completed regardless of the target date.
“To me, the mission of evacuating personnel takes priority over deadlines,” said Representative Jake Auchincloss, a former Marine who commanded the infantry in Afghanistan.
G7 COMMITMENT TO AFGHANISTAN
The leaders of the G7’s major industrialized nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — met virtually to discuss how to complete the chaotic withdrawal and deal with the Taliban as they have seized power.
G7 leaders said they would remain committed to Afghanistan and support the United Nations in coordinating immediate humanitarian aid in the region, which is facing a new influx of refugees.
The talks have not resulted in “new dates” for the end of the evacuation mission, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, although there were intense discussions about whether a civilian-operated airport in Kabul could be used after Aug. 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the main condition of the G7 agreement was that terrorists must provide safe passage for Afghans who want to leave the country, even after the August 31 deadline.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin was interested in acting as an intermediary in resolving the crisis, along with China, the United States and Pakistan.
The executive director of the World Food Program, David Beasley, said a decision on politics needed to be made quickly as the combination of conflict, drought and the COVID-19 pandemic meant that 14 million Afghans could soon face starvation.
The Afghan government collapsed when the United States and its allies withdrew their troops two decades after they ousted the Taliban in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda terrorists, whose leaders had found a safe haven. found in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Taliban leaders, who have tried to show a more moderate face since the capture of Kabul, have begun talks about forming a government, including talks with some old enemies, including former president Hamid Karzai.
The Taliban have appointed a former Guantanamo detainee, Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, as acting defense minister, Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera said, citing a Taliban source. Some former Afghan government officials say they have been ordered to return to work.
Many Afghans fear reprisals and a return to a harsh version of Sharia (Islamic law) that the Taliban applied when they were in power from 1996 to 2001, specifically the oppression of women.
Mujahid said there was no list of people who had been targeted for reprisals and that the group was trying to devise a procedure to allow women to return to work.
UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the United Nations would monitor closely.
“A fundamental red line will be the treatment of women and girls by the Taliban,” she said at an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Five members of an Afghan robotics team made up of girls, who have been declared winners of international awards, arrived at Mexico’s airport on Tuesday after fleeing an uncertain future at home.
(This story was not edited by NewsMadura staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
