US, Taliban struggle to work together on flights
Blinken: Officials still working to aid those wanting out
DOHA, Qatar — With the massive U.S. military effort to evacuate American citizens and endangered Afghans completed, those still scrambling to find safe passage from Afghanistan are now navigating a complicated and potentially dangerous diplomatic impasse.
Unable to fly from Kabul’s airport, which remains closed and in need of upgrades, many people have flocked to the airport in the northern city of Mazar-eSharif, making it the latest flashpoint as the United States struggles to coordinate with its former Taliban adversaries to help people wanting to leave the country.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to reporters during a visit to Qatar on Tuesday, said U.S. officials were “working around the clock” to ensure that flights carrying Americans and endangered Afghans can safely depart Afghanistan. He contested claims that the Taliban have blocked charter flights from departing the Mazar-e-Sharif airport.
Blinken said he was unaware of any “hostagelike” situation in Mazare-Sharif, contradicting a claim by a prominent House Republican that the Taliban were reneging on promises they have made to U.S. officials to allow safe passage from the country of foreigners and Afghans with valid travel documents.
“We have been assured, again, that all American citizens and Afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be allowed to leave,” Blinken said, adding that “we intend to hold the Taliban to that.”
Blinken, who appeared alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and their Qatari counterparts, said Taliban leaders had recently reaffirmed that commitment. He pointed to the exit from the country on Monday by an American family who used an undisclosed land route. The Taliban knew what the family was doing but did not impede them, U.S. officials say.
But in the case of Mazare-Sharif, Blinken said, the Taliban have objected to charter flights that combine passengers who have valid travel documents and those who do not.
“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents at this point can’t leave,” Blinken said. “But because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go.”
On Sunday, Rep. Mike McCaul of Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the Taliban were blocking the departure of six flights from Mazar-e-Sharif that included American citizens and Afghans who had acted as interpreters for the U.S. military. McCaul said the Taliban were holding the passengers “hostage” as they made demands of the U.S. government.
Blinken said he believed around 100 American citizens remain in Afghanistan, including “a relatively small number” seeking to leave Mazar-e-Sharif.
“We think we are in some kind of jail,” one Afghan woman among the would-be evacuees gathered in Mazare-Sharif told The Associated Press. She said elderly American citizens and parents of Afghan-Americans in the U.S. are among those being blocked from boarding evacuation planes.
The woman, an employee of a U.S.-based nonprofit, Ascend, that works with Afghan women and girls, spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity for her security. She said those in her group have proper passports and visas, but that she has still been waiting for eight days for permission to leave.
Further complicating matters, the Taliban said Tuesday they would not allow people to leave the country until a new government is formed. The Taliban on Tuesday afternoon announced a list of people who will fill key roles, but they held off on formally swearing in the new government.
The group said earlier in the day that without functioning ministries to grant exit stamps and perform other necessary duties, an orderly departure process was not yet in place.
The Taliban are also working with international partners to try and restart full operations at the airport in Kabul.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said that his nation was working with Qatar and other countries to help fix damage at the Kabul facility and establish security protocols.
While the security outside the airport can be maintained by the Taliban, he said, the airport’s security “should be maintained by a security company that is trusted” by the international community.