Taliban Piles Pressure On U.S. To Evacuate

The Taliban is putting pressure on the Joe Biden administration to evacuate Americans in Afghanistan as it said on Monday that it will not announce the composition of its government until the United States completes withdrawal of troops and evacuation of its citizens.

AFP quoted sources as saying “It has been decided that the formation of the government and cabinet will not be announced as long as a single US soldier is present in Afghanistan,” a Taliban source said, and this was confirmed by a second insider.”

This followed a warning that any attempt to delay evacuation beyond this week would have “consequences.”

The US had set August 31 deadline for withdrawal of its troops before the Taliban’s shock takeover of the country.

Thousands of soldiers had been deployed to Afghanistan, since the Taliban returned to power, to facilitate safe passage of US citizens and its Afghan allies.

Biden is under pressure at home to ensure safe withdrawal of troops, American citizens and nearly 50,000 US Afghan allies.

But the Taliban has shown no willingness to compromise on the US pullout.

“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News on Monday, adding that staying beyond the deadline would be “extending occupation.”

Biden said Sunday that the U.S. was considering extending evacuation efforts beyond August 31 deadline, saying to reporters at the White House that there were discussions “among us and the military about extending.”

He said the U.S. had evacuated about 11,000 people in 30 hours over the weekend, adding that about 28,000 U.S. citizens, allies and Afghans have been secured since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul on August 15.

He said 33,000 people have been transported since July.

“We see no reason why this tempo will not be kept up,” he said, referring to the pace of evacuations over the weekend.

But as his handling of the withdrawal has come under criticism from foreign allies and officials in both parties, Biden claimed that there was no way it could have gone any more smoothly.

“Let me be clear: The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started or when we began,” he said.

“Would’ve been true if we started a month ago or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss and heartbreaking images you see on television. It’s just a fact. My heart aches for those people you see. We are proving, though, that we can move thousands of people per day out of Kabul.”

There are reports that more than 20,000 people are still waiting to be airlifted at the Kabul airport.