The U.S. is consulting with the Taliban on “all aspects” of the Kabul evacuation

WASHINGTON – The United States is in close coordination with the Taliban as they work to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Kabul airport before President Joe Biden’s August 31 deadline to withdraw U.S. troops, he said. said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday.

“We are liaising with the Taliban, consulting with them on all aspects of what is happening in Kabul right now,” Sullivan told White House reporters. “On what’s happening at the airport, on how we need to ensure that the transition to the airport is facilitated for American citizens, SIVs and third-country nationals. And we will continue these conversations with them.”

Sullivan said coordination was taking place daily “through political and security channels,” but declined to elaborate.

Tens of thousands of Americans, NATO coalition nationals and Afghans who have helped NATO are desperately trying to leave the country by the only airport not controlled by the Taliban.

Sullivan defended the Biden administration from critics who say the chaotic and often tragic scenes that have taken place at and around Kabul airport last week could have been avoided with better planning and execution.

Sullivan said an element of chaos was inevitable in any U.S. withdrawal.

“If Kabul fell in August or September, or December or next August, the fact is that there would be American citizens in Kabul who had to be evacuated,” he said.

Still, “we think we have time, by the 31st, to get out of any American who wants to get out” of Afghanistan.

Sullivan explained that it was impossible to know exactly how many Americans were staying in Afghanistan, because some citizens never informed the State Department that they had arrived in the country, while others informed the government of their arrival, but no of his departure.

State Department spokesman Ned Price later told reporters, “We believe there are several thousand Americans in Afghanistan right now who would like to leave.”

It was not clear on Monday exactly how the United States planned to extract these thousands of citizens, many of whom are believed to be outside the capital Kabul.

Last week, the Pentagon said the U.S. military could not even guarantee the safe passage of Americans inside Kabul to Hamid Karzai International Airport, despite several thousand people stationed there. American troops.

On Saturday, the U.S. embassy in Kabul warned U.S. citizens not to travel to the airport, which soldiers and diplomats call “H-KAIA,” due to threats to security outside the gates. .

“The president believes we are making substantial progress,” Sullivan said.

Still, he added that Biden “takes this on a day-to-day basis and will make his determinations as we move forward,” referring to whether to extend the August 31 deadline.

On Sunday, the president said, “We hope we won’t have to expand. But I suspect there will be discussions about how far we are in the process.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban have made it clear that they believe any effort to keep Western troops in Afghanistan, even if only at the airport, beyond Aug. 31 is tantamount to a foreign occupation of their newly confiscated country.

“It’s a red line,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News in the UK on Monday. “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.”

Shaheen added, “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.”

The U.S.-led international effort to get the people out of Afghanistan has picked up pace in the past 24 hours.

Sullivan said the United States had moved about 10,400 people to Kabul in the past 24 hours in the last 24 hours with cargo planes. Non-US coalition planes evacuated 5,900 more people.

Since Aug. 14, the United States has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of approximately 37,000 people from Afghanistan, according to Pentagon data. If it lasts until the end of July, that number rises to about 42,000 people.

The Pentagon said evacuees are flying from Kabul to temporary safe havens in 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 be staying in Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin, Ft. Lee in Virginia, McGuire Dix Lakehurst Joint Base in New Jersey and Ft. Happiness in Texas.

In order to speed up the transit of evacuees to countries beyond the Middle East, Biden on Sunday activated the civil reserve air fleet, a program little used under which civilian airlines are ordered to provide aircraft to assist the military in times of catastrophic need. CRAF activation was for 18 aircraft from six airlines.

– CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check for updates again.