Blinken Says Taliban Pledged To Allow Vulnerable Americans And Afghans To Leave After 31st August Deadline
As many as 1,500 U.S. citizens may still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, and the Taliban have vowed to allow some exits after U.S. troops left the country on 31st August, U.S. Secretary of State Antony said Wednesday Blinken.
Blinken told reporters that at least 4,500 US citizens of the 6,000 Americans who tried to leave Afghanistan have left.
He said officials were “in direct contact” with 500 other Americans who were about to leave and gave them “specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely.”
Officials have ‘aggressively’ approached the remaining 1,000 Americans to “determine if they still want to leave,” he said.
“Some of them may no longer be in the country,” Blinken said.
“Some may have claimed to be Americans, but it turns out they are not.”
“Of the roughly 1,000, we believe that the number of Americans actively seeking help to get out of Afghanistan is significantly less,” he said.
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The US Secretary of State also said the Taliban had agreed to allow ‘vulnerable’ Americans and Afghans to leave after President Joe Biden‘s 31st August date for a total withdrawal of US troops.
“The Taliban have made a public and private commitment to provide safe transit for Americans, third-country nationals, and Afghans who are at risk after August 31,” he said.
“You have a responsibility to honor this commitment and provide safe passage for anyone who wants to leave the country, not just for the duration of our evacuation mission, but every day after.”
When asked what is being done to keep Kabul airport operational after the US troop withdrawal, Blinken said countries in the region “will try to see if they can play a role in maintaining the airport,” They can play open.
“The Taliban have made it clear that they have a great interest in a functioning airport,” he said.
When asked about future relations with the Taliban, Blinken said the United States “would judge our commitment to any Taliban-led government in Afghanistan on the basis of a simple statement: our interests.”
“The nature of any relationship depends on the actions and behavior of the Taliban,” he said, referring to the need for the fundamentalist Islamic group to “defend the basic rights of the Afghan people” and not allow the country to “get started” pad is used for terrorist attacks.
“If it fulfills its commitments to allow people who want to leave Afghanistan to leave, this is a government we can work with,” he said.
“If not, we will make sure to use all the means at our disposal to isolate this government and, as I said, Afghanistan will be an outcast.”
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