{"id":46199,"date":"2021-08-24T23:22:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T23:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=46199"},"modified":"2021-08-24T23:22:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T23:22:58","slug":"us-on-pace-to-withdraw-from-afghanistan-by-august-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=46199","title":{"rendered":"US \u2018on pace\u2019 to withdraw from Afghanistan by August 31"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After a G7 meeting with Washington\u2019s top international allies, the White House remains non-committal on extending the withdrawal deadline from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden was set to deliver a speech at noon local time in Washington (16:00 GMT) announcing \u2013 according to several US media outlets \u2013 that American troops would leave Kabul by August 31.<\/p>\n

The speech was delayed several times. And hours later, the White House released a statement saying that the evacuation of American citizens, third-country nationals and Afghan allies was \u201con pace to finish\u201d by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

Still, the statement by White House press secretary Jen Psaki left the possibility for extending the withdrawal deadline open. She said the operation will \u201cend based on the achievement of our objectives\u201d.<\/p>\n

Psaki said Biden told fellow G7 leaders that US troops are facing \u201cincreasing threats\u201d each day from ISIS-K, ISIL\u2019s branch from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, the president has asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans to adjust the timeline should that become necessary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Psaki later told reporters that coordination with the Taliban, the threat from ISIS-K and the contingency plan that Biden requested are \u201ckey caveats\u201d in the decision about the withdrawal deadline.<\/p>\n

Biden reiterated Psaki\u2019s message when he finally spoke later in the day. He said the US is \u201cdetermined\u201d to finish the evacuation mission, which he predicted will conclude by August 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sooner we can finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops,\u201d Biden said. \u201cBut the completion by August 31 depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who we\u2019re transporting out with no disruptions to our operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s European allies had urged Biden to extend the deadline to allow more time for the evacuation operation, but the Taliban warned of \u201cconsequences<\/a>\u201d if US forces remain in the country past August 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned about the deadline set by the United States on August 31. Additional time is needed to complete ongoing operations,\u201d French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday.<\/p>\n

At a news conference on Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had ruled out extending the deadline, saying that the US and its partners have the resources to evacuate their citizens by the end of August.<\/p>\n

As for Afghan allies of Washington, he said the group is \u201cnot in favour of allowing Afghans to leave\u201d, especially those with special skills, including doctors and engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis country needs their expertise. They should not be taken to other countries,\u201d Mujahid said.<\/p>\n

Congressional calls for extension<\/h3>\n

Key US lawmakers, including members of Biden\u2019s own Democratic Party, have called for extending the deadline as well.<\/p>\n

Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said on Monday that it was \u201cunlikely\u201d to evacuate all US citizens and allies from Afghanistan by August 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m certainly of the view that we maintain a military presence as long as it\u2019s necessary to get all US persons out and to meet our moral and ethical obligation to our Afghan partners,\u201d Schiff told reporters in Washington on Monday.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan group of 25 legislators who have served in the US military sent a letter to Biden calling for keeping the troops at the airport for as long as necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about more than doing the right thing,\u201d the letter<\/a> said. \u201cThis is a national security imperative. The eyes of the world are watching whether we will stand by our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taliban took over Afghanistan in a blitz this month, capturing the capital Kabul on August 15 with government forces collapsing and President Ashraf Ghani<\/a> fleeing the country.<\/p>\n

Thousands of US troops remain in control of the Hamid Karzai International Airport to oversee the evacuation of Americans and Afghan civilians who worked with the US.<\/p>\n

Despite scenes of chaos at the airport, the Biden administration has defended its actions in Kabul.<\/p>\n

On Monday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, said the airlifts<\/a> in Kabul were one of the largest in history, describing the operation as a \u201cmassive military, diplomatic, security, humanitarian undertaking\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sullivan also said Biden, not the Taliban, will make the final decision<\/a> on when US troops will leave Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Administration officials have said that Washington is in regular contact with the Taliban to facilitate the evacuations, but stress that the Afghan group must respect human rights, including the rights of women, to gain international recognition.<\/p>\n

Major US media outlets reported on Tuesday that CIA Director William Burns held secret talks<\/a> with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul this week.<\/p>\n

As reports that Biden would stick by the August 31 deadline emerged, his critics were quick to denounce the decision.<\/p>\n

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw, an Afghanistan war veteran, called the president a \u201ccoward\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world just witnessed the President of the United States take orders from a band of barbaric terrorists while ignoring the pleas of our international allies and American citizens he will leave behind,\u201d Crenshaw wrote on Twitter<\/a>, referring to the Taliban.<\/p>\n

G7 summit<\/h3>\n

Prior to his public speech on Tuesday, Biden addressed the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, as well as NATO\u2019s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and UN chief Antonio Guterres as part of a G7 meeting tackling the situation in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

European Council President Charles Michel, who attended the meeting, said the EU stressed to its US partners \u201cthe need to secure the airport as long as necessary to complete the operations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call on the new Afghan authorities to allow free passage to all foreign and Afghan citizens who wish to get to the airport,\u201d Michel said in a news conference after the G7 session.<\/p>\n

\n

Working with @G7<\/a> on common #Afghanistan<\/a> approach.<\/p>\n

Safe evacuation of our nationals & local staff remains immediate priority. <\/p>\n

We must also prepare ground for wider #G7<\/a> engagement & coordinated international action in support of Afghan people and prevent resurgence of terrorism pic.twitter.com\/xLbnD6MHKA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Charles Michel (@eucopresident) August 24, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the G7 will use its political and economic leverage to pressure the Taliban to ensure safe passage to the airport for those wishing to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions we\u2019re setting as G7 is that they\u2019ve got to guarantee \u2013 right the way through August the 31st and beyond \u2013 a safe passage for those who want to come out,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Despite the apparent European reservations about Biden\u2019s policies, the US president said on Tuesday that Washington and its allies are \u201cunited\u201d on the approach to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to stand shoulder to shoulder with our closest partners to meet the current challenges that we face in Afghanistan, just as we have for the past 20 years,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re acting in consultation and cooperation with our closest friends and fellow democracies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US is \u201caiming for the end of the month\u201d as a departure date from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Taliban have been very clear about what their expectations are,\u201d said Kirby.<\/p>\n

International warnings<\/h3>\n

As the US withdraws and the Taliban tightens its grip on the country, humanitarian groups are warning of a dire crisis in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a perfect storm coming because of several years of drought, conflict, economic deterioration, compounded by COVID,\u201d David Beasley, director of the World Food Programme, told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. \u201cThe number of people marching towards starvation has spiked to now 14 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

The United Nations rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said her office is receiving reports of \u201cserious violations\u201d of international humanitarian law in areas under Taliban control, including summary executions of civilians and abuses against women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are grave fears for women, for journalists and for the new generation of civil society leaders who have emerged in the past years,\u201d Bachelet said at an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfghanistan\u2019s diverse ethnic and religious minorities are also at risk of violence and repression, given previous patterns of serious violations under Taliban rule and reports of killings and targeted attacks in recent months.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a G7 meeting with Washington\u2019s top international allies, the White House remains non-committal on extending the withdrawal deadline from Afghanistan. President Joe Biden was set to deliver a speech at noon local time in Washington (16:00 GMT) announcing \u2013 according to several US media outlets \u2013 that American troops would leave Kabul by August…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}