The Taliban will no longer allow Afghans to go to Kabul airport to evacuate them

WASHINGTON – The Taliban said on Tuesday the group would not allow Afghan citizens to leave the country and opposed any extension of the evacuation flights, a development that comes a week before U.S. coalition forces and U.S. The United States is leaving Afghanistan.

“We are not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday.

“They [the Americans] they have the opportunity, they have all the resources, they can take all the people who belong to them, but we will not allow the Afghans to leave and we will not extend the deadline, ”he said, adding that the evacuations carried out by foreign forces after 31 d ‘August would be a’ violation ‘of a promise by the Biden administration to end the US military mission in the country.

“The road to the airport is closed now. Afghans can’t go now, foreigners can go, but we have stopped going to Afghans because people are more, there is a danger that people will lose. life, there could be a stampede, “Mujahid said, according to a performer during the broadcast.

President Joe Biden has previously said he could consider extending the departure date to Aug. 31, but he has yet to do so. Biden is expected to address the nation on efforts to evacuate and relocate coalition and U.S. forces on Tuesday following an emergency G-7 meeting.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday that there have been no changes to the mission’s schedule.

“We remain committed to getting all Americans who want to leave them out and we still certainly believe now that we’ve been able to increase capacity and flow, we believe we have the capacity, the capacity to achieve that by part of the end of the month, ”Kirby said.

“The Taliban have been very clear about their expectations,” Kirby explained when asked about the Taliban’s public statements opposing a lengthy U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.

“Without going into details, I don’t see much dissonance [between public and private conversations with Taliban],” added.

On Monday, a Taliban spokesman issued a similar warning during an interview with Sky News about a possible extension.

“It’s a red line. President Biden announced that on August 31 he would withdraw all his military forces. So if they expand it means they expand the occupation as long as there is none,” Suhail Shaheen said. according to the report.

“If the United States or the United Kingdom were looking for extra time to continue evacuations, the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” he added.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday during a news conference that the administration believed it could end its evacuation efforts later this month.

“We are interacting with the Taliban, consulting with them on all aspects of what is happening in Kabul right now,” Sullivan said. “Ultimately, it will be the president’s decision how this proceeds, no one else,” he added.

The White House said Tuesday that the United States has evacuated or helped evacuate approximately 58,700 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, with some 21,600 of them transported by air during Monday 12 p.m.

Since the end of July, the U.S. has relocated approximately 63,900 people, the White House said. According to the State Department, it is still believed that there are several thousand Americans awaiting evacuation.

Currently, more than 5,000 U.S. soldiers are on the ground in Kabul assisting in emergency evacuation efforts. Nearly 200 aircraft are engaged in the evacuation effort with some capacity.

The Pentagon said evacuees are flying from Kabul to temporary safe havens throughout the Middle East and Europe, including U.S. facilities in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Italy, Spain and Germany.

Afghan citizens arriving in the United States will stay at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, Fort Lee in Virginia, McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Joint Base in New Jersey, or Fort Bliss in Texas.

“It’s very possible that we need to use additional U.S. military facilities here in the state,” Kirby said.