Secretary of State Tony Blinken will talk about the unprecedented historic effort to repatriate Americans from Afghanistan and will focus on what the department has done to provide tailor-made assistance to Americans as an effort to remove ‘ls of the country, according to a senior State Department official. .
President Biden said yesterday that Blinken will also give specific numbers on how many Americans are still in the country and want to leave.
“Tomorrow I asked Secretary Blinken to give you an update and a detailed report on how many Americans are still in Afghanistan and how many we are leaving and what our projection is,” President Biden said yesterday.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said 4,400 Americans had been evacuated but did not provide a total number of Americans who still need to be evacuated, during the Pentagon briefing Wednesday morning.
Blinken will also talk about the U.S.’s lasting commitment to Afghans. But when the U.S. leaves the airport, Afghans will be an incredible challenge to leave the country, as the Taliban have said they will not allow them to leave the country and it is unclear whether Kabul airport will remain open.
The Biden administration is in contact with U.S. allies over Kabul airport security and efforts to keep it in operation, the State Department official said. It is unclear whether there will be any agreement to keep the airport open by the time the U.S. military leaves.
Kirby said the way the airport is managed when the US leaves will be the responsibility of the Taliban. He noted that the Turks still have a presence at the airport, but said he did not want to talk about his intention in the future.