Kabul/Washington: With thousands of desperate Afghans and foreigners massed at Kabul’s airport in the hope of fleeing Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, US President Joe Biden is expected to decide as soon as Tuesday (August 24) on whether to extend an August 31 deadline to airlift Americans and their allies to safety. Biden has warned that the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful” and much could still go wrong. US troops might stay beyond an August 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said.
On Monday (August 23), an administration official told Reuters that Biden would decide within 24 hours whether to extend the timeline to give the Pentagon time to prepare.
Beyond the need to remove thousands of Americans, citizens of allied countries and Afghans who worked with US forces, Department of Defense officials said it would still take days to fly out the 6,000 troops deployed to secure and run the airlift. Some Biden advisers were arguing against extending the self-imposed deadline for security reasons. Biden could signal his intentions at a virtual meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations on Tuesday.
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Two US officials had said the expectation was that the United States would continue evacuations past August 31. Later on Monday, Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told reporters after a briefing on Afghanistan by intelligence officials that he did not believe the evacuation could be completed in the eight remaining days. “I think it’s possible but I think it’s very unlikely given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated,” Schiff said.
A Taliban official said foreign forces had not sought an extension and it would not be granted if they had. Washington said negotiations were continuing. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was in daily talks with the Taliban and making “enormous progress” in evacuating Americans and others. Between 3 am and 3 pm local time on August 23, some 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul, meaning the United States had facilitated the removal of 48,000 people since August 14.
US defense officials had told Reuters that almost everything would have to go perfectly to extricate every American citizen by August 31, given concerns about reaching the airport, terrorist attacks and complicated processing times. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters the United States had discussed future control of the airport with the Taliban, as well as with U.S. partners and allies. The difficulties at the airport were underlined on August 23 with a firefight between Afghan guards and unidentified gunmen. German and US forces were also involved, the Germany military said.
A British government spokesperson said British evacuations could not continue once US troops leave. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also said more time was needed.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the virtual G7 summit must agree on whether to extend the deadline and how to improve access to the airport.
The airport chaos also disrupted aid shipments. The World Health Organization said tons of medical supplies were stuck because Kabul airport was closed to commercial flights.
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