US continues pressing Taliban on evac mission
Pushing for flights to leave Kabul
The U.S. secretary of state on Wednesday said they will “continue to press” the Taliban to let charter flights leave Afghanistan and to open up the Kabul airport.
A number of groups and individuals have been organizing charter flights out of Afghanistan for people who want to evacuate amid the Taliban takeover.
However, the Taliban are not allowing charter flights to depart, claiming that some of the passengers do not have required documents.
“Those flights need to be able to depart,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a U.S. base in Germany. “And we will work every day to make sure that they’re able to do that.
“We will continue to press the Taliban to allow the charters to leave,” he said, adding that the Taliban must also open Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul “to the regular flow of civilian aircraft, which can enable the safe and orderly departure of people from Afghanistan.”
The U.S. is working with nongovernmental organizations, advocates and lawmakers “around the clock” to help coordinate their efforts and offer guidance, Blinken said.
“We’ve made clear to all parties – we’ve made clear to the Taliban – that these charters need to be able to depart, and we continue every day, virtually every hour, to work on that,” he added.
Blinken’s comments came a day after the Taliban named a new interim government. The U.S. is now assessing the announcement, he said.
“But despite professing that a new government would be inclusive, the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates, and no women,” Blinken said. “We’re also concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of those individuals.”
“It certainly does not meet the test of inclusivity and it includes people who have very challenging track records,” he later added.
The U.S. will judge the Taliban “by its actions,” he said.
“The Taliban seek international legitimacy and support,” Blinken said. “Any legitimacy, any support, will have to be earned.”
Blinken met with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at the Ramstein Air Base, where he traveled after visiting Qatar, another important staging post in the evacuation effort.
So far, more than 34,000 people have been flown to Ramstein under a transit agreement with Germany. As of Wednesday, about 23,000 people had been flown from Ramstein to the U.S. or other locations.
There were about 11,200 people at the base and the nearby Rhine Ordnance Barracks awaiting onward travel.