Tens of thousands of Afghans and civilians from countries across the world are currently waiting for their flight out of the country. Over 19,000 people left the airport on U.S. and coalition flights in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of evacuees to about 88,000.
However, there are still reports of American citizens and Afghan refugees with approval to leave the country struggling to get past Taliban checkpoints and U.S.-controlled gates at the Kabul airport.
The U.S. State Department said about 4,500 American citizens and their families have been evacuated from Afghanistan and around 1,500 Americans remain in the country.
The exact figures “are hard to pin down at any moment,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press briefing Wednesday.
Blinken also said that while the U.S. is on track to complete its evacuation operations by August 31, “there is no deadline” on the U.S.’s work to evacuate American citizens and its Afghan and third-country partners from Afghanistan.
The U.S. will also continue to work with the Taliban to “advance our interests,” but Blinken said U.S. relationship with the future Afghan government “depends entirely on the action and conduct of the Taliban.”
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KEY MOMENTS
Pentagon: Kabul airport will not be the U. S. ’s responsibility after withdrawal U. S. in “daily communication” with Taliban over checkpoint access in Kabul 4,500 Americans evacuated, about 1,500 remain in Afghanistan Blinken says U. S. will use every “diplomatic, economic” tool to ensure the Taliban uphold women’s rights
Those efforts will require continued cooperation with the Taliban.
“The Taliban, whether we like it or not, is largely in control of the country and the city of Kabul,” Blinken said, “It’s been important to work with them to try to facilitate and ensure the departure of all those who want to leave.”
Working with the Taliban “advaces our interests,” he added.
“If engagement with the government can advance the enduring interest we will have in counterterrorism, the enduring interest we will have in trying to help the Afghan people who need humanitarian assistance, the enduring interest we have in seeing that the rights of all Afghans, especially women and girls, are upheld, then we’ll do it,” he said.
Blinked said that one of the top concerns for him and the State Department is the safety and equal treatment of women in Afghanistan.
Of the 82,000-plus people who have been evacuated so far, Blinken said about 45 to 46 percent have been women and children.
He added that the U.S. will use every “diplomatic, economic, political and assistance tool,” along with their allies, to ensure the Taliban upholds the basic rights of women.
Blinken said that the U.S. relationship with the future Afghan government “depends entirely on the action and conduct of the Taliban.”
If it makes good on its commitment to upholds citizen rights, doesn’t provide safe haven to terrorists and allows people who want to leave the country leave, “that’s a government we can work with,” Blinken said.
If it doesn’t, “we will make sure we use every tool at our disposal to isolate that government and, as I’ve said before, Afghanistan will be a pariah,” he added.
Blinken said that the operation is set to wrap up by the deadline, so long as the Taliban continues to cooperate with U.S. forces and “there are no disruptions to this plan.”
He added that there is a contingency plan to continue evacuations after the end of the month.
“There is no deadline” on our work to help remaining Americans and Afghan staff who want to leave the country, Bliken said. “That effort will continue every day after August 31.”
“People who want to leave [Afghanistan] after the military leaves should be able to do so,” Blinken added.
At least 4,500 American citizens and their families have already been evacuated from Afghanistan, Blinken said.
The State Department has been in direct contact with more than 500 Americans over the last 24 hours and provided instructions on how to get to the Kabul airport safely.
Blinken added that the State Department has reached out to the remaining 1,000 contacts to determine if they want to leave and instruct them how to do so.
He noted that the exact numbers of Americans evacuated or remaining in Afghanistan are “hard to pin down at any moment.” He said these figures are “dynamic calculations” that are refined by the hour for accuracy.
Potzel met with Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, the Deputy Head of the Taliban’s political bureau, and his team for “a comprehensive discussion” in Doha about the “urgent need for a functioning airport in Kabul as a prerequisite for diplomatic and NGO [nongovernmental organizations] presence in [Afghanistan].
“Director Stanekzai assured me that Afghans with legal documents will continue to have the opportunity to travel on commercial flights after 31 August,” Potzel tweeted.
A Senate aid told CNN that not all of the Americans are located in and around Kabul.
“Lives are always going to be the priority,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said.
Kirby said that even though moving out military capabilities and military resources from Kabul will be a top concern, the U.S. “will continue to evacuate needed populations all the to the end if we have to.”
“As we get closer to the end, there will be some equipment and systems that we will probably take with us as we leave … but lives will always be the chief priority throughout this entire process,” he continued.
“We are in constant, daily communication with Taliban commanders about who we want to see get in and what credentials are, what they look like, what’s valid,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said.
This includes both American citizens and Special Immigrant Visa applicants.
Kirby said the U.S. has “been nothing but open with the Taliban about who we expect them to let in,” but added that “not every step of this process is in our firm control.”
This comes after reports of Americans experiencing delays at checkpoints.
“When the mission is over and when we are leaving the airport, the airport will not be the United States’ responsibility anymore,” he said.
Kirby said the Taliban will have to manage the airport on their own, with the international community.
“That won’t be an American responsibility,” Kirby said.
He added that he does not know of any civilian casualties during that time either.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said their presence “certainly took time away from what we were planning to do that day.”
He added that the Defense Secretary would have appreciated the chance to speak with the representatives before they left.
“We are not encouraging VIP visits” to the “tense and dangerous situation” in Kabul, Kirby said.
There are 5,400 U.S. troops on the ground in Kabul, the Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said.
Kirby said “north of 4,400” Americans have been airlifted out of Afghanistan. He does not know how many Americans still need to be evacuated, but said he will provide an update soon.
In total, 88,000 people have been evacuated and there are currently 10,000 at the Kabul airport waiting to be airlifted.
Major General Hank Taylor also shared that the U.S. troops carried out an operation “under cover of darkness” to rescue Americans stranded outside of the Kabul airport.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that fewer than 20 Americans were brought back to the compound aboard American military helicopters.
The leaders “expressed their readiness to step up efforts to combat threats of terrorism and drug trafficking coming from the territory of Afghanistan” during a phone call, the Kremlin said in a statement.
They also discussed the “importance of establishing peace” in Afghanistan and “preventing the spread of instability to adjacent regions.”
Gabriel Attal did not provide an end date for French operations in Afghanistan but said “we will likely need to anticipate a few hours, maybe a few days ahead” of the U.S. departure from the Kabul airport.
“We will continue as long as possible,” he said. “Due to extreme tension on the ground…and the scheduled departure of American forces, these evacuations are a true race against time.”
At least 1,720 Afghans and a hundred French people have been evacuated by France since operations began last week.
The number included those with Russian passports, people with permanent residence rights and students of Russian universities.
The Russian Defense Ministry has announced that it has begun evacuating more than 500 people from Afghanistan, including citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
While he could not provide a specific timeline, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said “it’s clear that the troops will be withdrawn by the end of the month.”
Raab said the British military will need time before the deadline to withdraw its people and equipment, but “we will make the maximum use of all the time we have left.”
He added that British forces have airlifted 9,000 British citizens and at-risk Afghans from Kabul airport since the Taliban took over on August 15.
“We give you the warmest welcome to Mexico,” Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Martha Delgado said as she greeted the refugees during a news conference at Mexico City’s international airport.
“We are happy to be here,” Fatemah Qaderyan one member of the team said, according to local media reports. “From now on we will have opportunities for many more achievements in our lives.”
The five women and one man who arrived Tuesday will be granted “whatever legal status they consider best,” Mexico Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said. That could include giving them asylum or refugee status.
“We received the first applicants for humanitarian status in Mexico from Afghanistan, they are part of the robotics team in that country and defend a dream: a world with gender equality. Welcome!” Ebrard said in a tweet.
“One thing is clear. The Taliban now are a reality in Afghanistan,” Merkel told lawmakers during the parliamentary session.
“Our goal must be to preserve, as much as possible, the achievements of the past 20 years. For this, the international community must have talks with the Taliban,” she said.
Merkel also said Germany will try to help Afghans who worked with its soldiers and aid organizations even after the U.S. military’s August 31 withdrawal deadline.
“The end of the air bridge in a few days must not mean the end of efforts to protect Afghan helpers and help those Afghans who have been left in a bigger emergency,” Merkel said.
“We are working intensively at all levels to find how we can protect those who helped us, including through the civilian operation of the airport in Kabul,” she added.
The move stunned the State Department and U.S. military, who had to divert resources to provide security and information to the lawmakers
Rep. Seth Moulton and Rep. Peter Meijer flew in and out on charter aircraft and were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours on Tuesday, which led officials to complain that they could be taking seats that would have otherwise gone to other Americans or Afghans fleeing the country.
The pair said in a joint statement following the trip:
Deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz said that a group taken from Kabul and now in Uzbekistan was the last evacuated by the country, while another plane is on its way to Warsaw.
He said the decision was made in consultation with British and U.S. officials follow President Biden’s commitment to removing American troops - something Poland fears would create an untenable security situation.
Police dog handlers broke up the protest in the village of Harskamp - 85 kilometers (52 miles) east of Amsterdam - but did not arrest anybody or issue fines.
The base is expected to house around 800 refugees arriving in the Netherlands since last week.
Chris Costa, the senior director for counterterrorism for former President Donald Trump, said:
READ MORE: Taliban’s Control of Afghanistan Could Mean Rapid Al-Qaeda Resurgence, Official Says
The country plans to shelter up to 2,000 people fleeing the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, the leaders suggesting the Afghans would be brought to Uganda in small groups in a temporary arrangement before they are relocated elsewhere.
Putin confirmed his troops would not look to interfere in Afghanistan, citing lessons learned from Russia’s 10-year Soviet conflict in the country which ended with a withdrawal of troops in 1989.
READ MORE: Putin Criticizes U.S. Leaving Afghanistan, Says Fallout May Present Problems for Russia
Tensions between the U.S. and its allies are becoming increasingly tested over the issue, which has left many in a difficult position regarding the deteriorating security situation at the facility and an increasingly impatient Taliban leadership.
Follow Newsweek’s liveblog throughout Wednesday for all the latest.
