By Aaron Miller-
Joe Biden has said US troops may stay beyond a 31 August deadline to evacuate all Americans from Afghanistan.
His latest comments come in the wake of criticism against his handling of the withdrawal, as the U.S president said that chaos would always have ensued withdrawal.
“If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Biden told ABC News, implying that he would listen to US lawmakers who had pressed him to extend the 31 August deadline he had set for a final pullout. Asked if he thought the handling of the crisis could have gone better, Biden said: “No.”
“We’re gonna go back in hindsight and look … but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Chaotic scenes around Kabul airport have lead to 12 killings, according to a Taliban official quoted by the Reuters news agency. Many of those trying to escape the mayhem in the country have been beaten by Taliban guards, making travel next to impossible even for those with valid travel document
There has also been fresh criticism that classified intelligence documents from the past few weeks gave multiple warnings to the Biden administration of the prospect of an imminent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and the likely rapid collapse of Afghan troops.
Reports that Afghans and foreigners with passports and papers have been turned away at airport checkpoints by Taliban fighters leading to foreign evacuation flights departing with empty seats is one of the most troubling developments of the past 24 hours.
The U.S confirmed it has evacuated nearly 6,000 people from Afghanistan since Saturday but thousands desperately seeking to leave the country remain. Educated young women, former U.S military translators, and other Afghans most at-risk from the Taliban appealed to the Biden administration to get them on evacuation flights as the United States as quickly as possible.
“If we don’t sort this out, we’ll literally be condemning people to death,” said Marina Kielpinski LeGree, the American head of nonprofit organization Ascend.
Biden told ABC the Taliban were cooperating in helping get Americans out of the country, but admitted “we’re having some more difficulty” in evacuating US-aligned Afghan citizens.
He said: “They’re cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera, but they’re having … we’re having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there.”
The president was asked what his response had been to images that emerged of packed US military planes taking off from Kabul airport as people clung to their sides. At least two people apparently fell to their deaths from the undercarriage soon after takeoff.
Biden replied: “What I thought was: we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.”
Independence Day
Thursday marks Afghanistan’s independence day, celebrating the country’s freedom from British rule in 1919. The Taliban today celebrated Afghanistan’s independence day, celebrating the country’s freedom from British rule in 1919. United States, to fail and retreat from our holy territory of Afghanistan”.
However, it also raised the prospect of galvanizing further anti-Taliban protests across the country. On Wednesday, at least three people and were killed and over a dozen injured when hundreds of Afghans marched in the city of Jalalabad, brandishing the Afghan flag, to protest against Taliban rule and were beaten and shot at by Taliban fighters.
Food shortages have also accompanied the chaotic insurgency that has gripped the country, with increased deprivation being a growing concern for Afghanistan.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) joined growing number of donors and lenders who said they would suspend funds going to Afghanistan. IMF Resources of over £268m had been set to arrive this month but an IMF spokesperson said “lack of clarity within the international community” over recognizing a government in Afghanistan meant they would no longer send the funds.
Former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country of Sunday as Taliban troops entered Kabul, made his first appearance since it emerged he had been granted entry into the United Arab Emirates on “humanitarian grounds”.
Ghani, speaking in a video posted on Facebook, said he supported talks between the Taliban and former government officials, led by former president Hamid Karzai. He said he was “in talks” to return to Afghanistan and that he was making efforts to “safeguard the rule of Afghans over our country”.