Grounded by Taliban

Blinken finally says truth

Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that Taliban fighters are holding back charter flights intended to ferry US citizens and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan on Wednesday — contradicting his denial a day earlier that the extremist group was holding Americans hostage.

“As of now, the Taliban are not permitting the charter flights to depart. They claim that some of the passengers do not have the required documentation,” Blinken told reporters at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“While there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place, we are working to do everything in our power to support those flights, and to get them off the ground,” Blinken said.

He said the Biden administration is working with nongovernmental organizations and advocates to arrange landing rights in third-party countries.

“Those flights need to move. I pointed out some of the complications that are there, but those flights need to move,” he said (satellite photo of grounded planes on Friday, above).

The White House has come under fire for not doing more to pressure the Taliban to allow flights to leave amid reports that as many as six planes were sitting on the tarmac at the Mazar-iSharif airport awaiting clearance to depart.

Blinken, speaking at a press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, said the international community is putting immense pressure on the Taliban to allow the flights to resume.

“In the meantime, an immediate way the Taliban can demonstrate its willingness to respect freedom of movement is by allowing the departure of charter flights with properly documented passengers,” he said.

On Tuesday, Blinken had said of the situation in Kabul, “We are not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostage-like situation in Mazar-i-Sharif.”