The Taliban “will not allow” Afghans to evacuate after August 31 and will ban them from entering the airport

this Taliban They warned on Tuesday that they “will not allow” Afghans to leave the country after the August 31 deadline, and that they will bar Afghans from entering Kabul Airport.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference that the United States must abide by the deadline for withdrawal and that “after that, we will not let Afghans be taken out” to evacuate the flight.

Mujahid also stated that the Taliban will allow foreigners to pass through checkpoints, but Afghans will be barred from entering the road leading to the airport. He said that foreigners will be allowed to pass to prevent large crowds from gathering at the airport.

It is not clear whether the Taliban will prevent foreigners from escorting Afghans or Afghans evacuated from Western countries.

For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below:

A senior U.S. official said that the president Joe Biden Although European leaders have asked for more time, they are also committed to deadlines.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson The G7 will not recognize the Taliban government unless the group guarantees that people can leave the country as they wish before and after the August deadline.

The announcement laid the foundation for the chaotic endgame. CIA The director met with the supreme leader of the Taliban in Kabul. This special meeting reflected the severity of the crisis and the need for the United States to coordinate with the Taliban during the Taliban’s efforts to end the two-year war against them.

In recent days, there has been a series of operations to speed up the chaotic evacuation at Kabul Airport. The desperate scenes have highlighted the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s fear that they will resort to the brutal tactics they used to rule Afghanistan last time.

Currently, the American armies Control the airspace of Afghanistan and the military side of Kabul Airport, where the United States and other countries are NATO The troops are helping people board the evacuation plane. Since August 16, the day after the capital fell into the hands of the Taliban, no commercial flights have flown in or out, restricting their rapid takeover of the country.

Mujahid said that after the United States plans to withdraw troops, the Taliban will take over the security of the airport. It is not clear when commercial flights will resume, which puts pressure on current evacuation efforts to allow as many people as possible to evacuate.

The White House said that in the 24 hours that ended earlier on Tuesday, about 21,600 people were airlifted out of the country-reflecting a significant increase in the number of airlifts that accelerated.

At the same time, a U.S. official stated that the CIA Director William Burns and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradal met-this was an extraordinary moment for the U.S. agency. The Taliban have been the target of paramilitary operations for ten years. It is unclear what exactly they are discussing.

The CIA arrested Baradar in cooperation with the Pakistani army in 2010, and spent eight years in a Pakistani prison before the Trump administration persuaded Pakistan to release him before peace talks with the Taliban in the United States in 2018.

Washington post First reported the meeting between Burns and Baradar. A U.S. official who asked not to be named confirmed the report because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Mujahid said he was not aware of any such meetings, but did not deny that it happened.

At the same time, Mujahid refuted the idea that Afghans need to flee, arguing that the Taliban brought peace and security to the country. He said the main problem was the chaos at the airport and accused the United States of attracting engineers, doctors and other professionals that the country relies on.

Earlier, Michelle Bachelet, the head of UN human rights affairs, stated that she had credible reports that civilians and former security forces who were no longer fighting were “summary executions”, recruitment of child soldiers, and Restrict the right of women and girls to move freely. go to school.

She did not specify the time or source of the report.

It is difficult to determine the extent of the abuse of power, and whether they contradict the Taliban’s public statements or reflect disunity in their ranks.

But these reports have fueled the sentiment of people scrambling to flee the country, and they fear that this indicates that the Taliban will return to their previous rule. From 1996 to 2001, the invasion led by the United States, the Taliban largely restricted women at home, banned television and music, cut off the hands of suspected thieves and publicly executed them.

“At this critical moment, the Afghan people look forward to the Human Rights Council to defend and protect their rights,” Bachelet said. “I urge the Security Council to take bold and forceful actions commensurate with the severity of this crisis, and to establish a special mechanism to closely monitor the changing human rights situation in Afghanistan.”

Bachelet’s “mechanism” refers to the possibility that the council may appoint commissions of inquiry, special rapporteurs or fact-finding missions.

Out of concerns about abuse of power, European leaders had hoped that the United States would consider postponing the withdrawal of troops to allow more personnel to evacuate. The Taliban have said that August 31 is a “red line”, and any existence after that will “trigger a reaction.”

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that most of the local staff working for his country in Afghanistan have not left, and said Tuesday’s meeting was “very important” for discussing the international access to Kabul Airport after the end of August. The British Defence Minister separately called the deadline a “mistake.”

But Johnson of the United Kingdom admitted that he failed to change Biden’s course after the G7 meeting.

“We will persist until the last minute,” he said. “But you have heard what the President of the United States has to say, you have heard what the Taliban said.”

An official, who asked not to be named, said that Biden decided to comply with the deadline after consulting with his national security team to discuss the decision that has not been publicly announced.

The tragic scene at the airport shocked the world. Last week, Afghans swarmed on the tarmac. Some people clutched a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, then crashed and died. At least seven people died that day, and another seven people were killed in a panic stampede on Sunday. On Monday, an Afghan soldier was killed in a gun battle.