Johnson to push Biden on Afghan withdrawal
PM will put pressure on US president at G7 meeting to extend Aug 31 deadline for troops to leave the country
BORIS JOHNSON will tomorrow personally ask Joe Biden for a delay to the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. The Prime Minister will put the US president on the spot in front of world leaders at an emergency G7 meeting tomorrow.
Ministers have been pressing the US privately for days to consider delaying the August 31 withdrawal and ease the pressure on Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans who are trying to escape the Taliban are still gathered. Seven people died in a crush over the weekend.
The Daily Telegraph understands that unless Mr Biden relents, UK troops are due to start to withdraw from Kabul airport towards the end of the week as they are expected to step up efforts to evacuate as many as 6,000 people.
The UK government is now preparing for thousands of Afghans to try to flee the country through its land borders with Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Mr Johnson is expected to meet senior Cabinet ministers today to discuss plans to set up “processing hubs” in these countries before some refugees go to the UK.
However, last night Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was unhappy at the risk of letting extremists enter Russia via former Soviet countries that do not require visa checks.
Pressure is mounting on Mr Biden to extend the deadline. Asked about the issue during a press conference last night, Mr Biden said: “There are discussions going on about extending. Our hope is that we don’t have to extend, but there are discussions going on about how far we are.”
Asked what he would tell G7 leaders who pressed for a deadline, he said: “I will tell them, ‘We will see what we can do’.”
Asked if he had discussed delaying the withdrawal of troops with the Taliban, Mr Biden said: “Obviously we’ve discussed a lot with the Taliban.
“They have been co-operative in extending some of the perimeter [of the airport]. It remains to be seen whether we ask that question.”
Announcing the G7 meeting, Mr Johnson said: “It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years.”
No 10 last night confirmed that extending the withdrawal would be raised at the video-link meeting of world leaders.
One No10 source said: “The main focus of the G7 is on the long term of Afghanistan but they will of course be discussing the current evacuation effort.”
Mr Wallace yesterday signalled in a Sunday newspaper article that US forces “will have our complete support” if they are permitted to stay longer.
James Heappey, a junior defence minister, confirmed yesterday that requests for a delay had been raised by both Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, and Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary with their counterparts in the Biden administration. Mr Raab spoke with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken on Saturday night.
One UK government source said the US was “in listening mode rather than making any commitments”. He added: “Biden seems pretty dug in”.
Any extension would mean more Afghans can be saved, the source said.
Foreign Office minister James Cleverly last night said: “Obviously the more time we’ve got, the more people we can evacuate. That’s what we’re pushing for.”
Over the weekend more than 1,720 people were airlifted from Kabul by the Royal Air Force. A total of 5,725 individuals have been flown out since the operation began.
However, Mr Heappey warned that any extension would have to be agreed with the Taliban, who are controlling access to the airport. The only current contact with the Taliban is through the Armed Forces on the ground.
He added: “If the programme is extended, then there is the opportunity to continue with flights. But the Taliban get a vote in that too, it’s not just a decision made in Washington.”
Thousands of Afghans are expected to try to head for the country’s land borders if the exit route from Kabul airport is closed by the Americans. Under Mr Johnson’s plans 5,000 Afghans and their families would be flown from the neighbouring countries in the first year, rising to 20,000 after that.
The scheme – developed by Mr Wallace and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary – would operate in a similar way to the Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme which has brought 20,000 Syrian refugees to the UK since 2015. Officials from the UN High Commission for Refugees oversaw the scheme on the ground, helping to screen cases for the UK, which was able to reject any refugee on security grounds.
Under the scheme, Afghans would be asked to prove they required urgent medical treatment, were survivors of violence and torture or were women and children at risk. The alternative is to prove they qualify for a scheme such as the one for former interpreters who helped British forces.
Explaining his unhappiness at the situation, Mr Putin said: “Does that mean they can be sent without visas to those countries, to our neighbours, while they themselves [the West] don’t want to take them without visas? Why is there such a humiliating approach to solving the problem?”
Mr Putin noted there were no visa restrictions between Russia and its Central Asian allies.
Foreign Office officials were last night said to be trying to clarify Mr Putin’s remarks. A source close to Ms Patel told The Telegraph: “We will still make sure we can help those in need.”
In an attempt to quell fears about an influx of unvetted people being flown into the country from Afghanistan, Mr Biden said last night that “anyone arriving in the United States will have undergone a background check.”
There was a further setback when Turkey warned that it cannot handle the burden of Afghan migrants. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, said: “A new wave of migration is inevitable if the necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and Iran.
“Turkey, which already has five million refugees, cannot take an additional burden of migrants.”