- If there are more American citizens leaving after the deadline, the date for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan may be extended to August 31.
- President Joe Biden defended his handling of the withdrawal, saying that after 20 years of U.S. involvement, problems are inevitable.
- The United States hopes that the Taliban will allow Afghans who also wish to leave the country to leave the country safely after the Taliban have made guarantees.
WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that US troops may remain in Afghanistan after the August 31 deadline to evacuate Americans. The Pentagon said that US troops are currently unable to access personnel outside the Kabul Airport.
In an interview with ABC News, Biden said: “If there are any American citizens leaving, we will stay until we withdraw them all.” Many American lawmakers that day urged him to extend the deadline he set for the final withdrawal. .
Biden has been fiercely criticized for his handling of the withdrawal. In recent days, the chaos inside and outside the Kabul airport has dominated, and people desperately want to leave the country.
Biden defended his decision, saying that ending the 20 years of US involvement there will inevitably lead to problems.
He said:
There is a way to get out without confusion, I don’t know how this happened.
He also said that the Taliban are currently cooperating to help Americans leave the country, but “we have encountered more difficulties” in evacuation of Afghan citizens allied with the United States.
With the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops, the speed at which Taliban forces regained Afghanistan led to chaos at the airport. Diplomats, foreign citizens, and Afghans tried to flee, but they were hindered by crowds and Taliban checkpoints.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Pentagon: “We will do everything we can to continue our efforts to resolve the conflict and create access to the airport for them. I am not able to go out and expand the current business in Kabul.”
A senior U.S. diplomat separately stated on Wednesday that the U.S. hopes the Taliban will allow Afghans who wish to leave Afghanistan to leave safely.
Dissatisfied
Austin said the United States is not satisfied with how many people have been evacuated.
“Obviously, in terms of getting the data to pass, we are still far from what we want to achieve,” he said.
A White House official said that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris discussed ways to speed up the evacuation of Americans and refugees from Afghanistan with his national security team on Wednesday.
Biden did not answer questions after giving a speech at the White House on the booster injection of the coronavirus, and turned and walked away when reporters yelled.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that officials are increasingly worried about how many Afghans at risk can be evacuated.
The Pentagon said earlier on Wednesday that US troops guarding the evacuation work shot into the air overnight to control the crowd, but there were no signs of casualties.
Austin said that there are about 4,500 U.S. military personnel in Kabul, “There is no hostile interaction with the Taliban, and our communication channels with the Taliban commander remain open.”
‘Quick crash’
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milli, told reporters together with Austin that there is no intelligence to indicate that the Afghan security forces and government will collapse like them within 11 days.
Milli said that the intelligence services “clearly indicated that there may be multiple situations,” including the Taliban’s takeover after the Afghan security forces and government quickly collapse, civil war or negotiated settlement.
Millie said:
The time frame for a rapid breakdown-it is generally estimated that it will vary from a few weeks to a few months or even years after we leave.
The two top Republicans in the U.S. Congress, Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives and Mitch McConnell in the Senate, requested a confidential briefing for the “Gang of Eight”-the top eight relevant legislators-to provide information on the evacuation. status report.
They wrote in a letter to Biden: “The most important thing is that the U.S. government is responsible for all American citizens in Afghanistan and provides all Americans who wish to leave the country with necessary information and ways to leave.”
Both Austin and Milly, who served in Afghanistan, admitted that the army and veterans are discovering disturbing images from the evacuation.
“I heard strong views from all parties on this issue… The important thing is that each of us will solve this issue in our own way,” Austin said.
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