A Taliban fighter holding an RPG rocket, stands guard with others at the gate outside the Ministry of Interior in Kabul.
- The NATO Foreign Minister met with the Taliban.
- NATO warned that the organization will not tolerate terrorist acts in the country.
- The Taliban occupied Kabul City, and a large-scale evacuation of residents is underway.
NATO’s foreign minister warned the Taliban on Friday not to allow Afghanistan to become a hotbed of terrorism, as it did two decades ago, prompting Western forces to intervene.
“In the past 20 years, we have successfully deprived terrorists of safe havens for inciting attacks in Afghanistan,” the coalition’s foreign minister said in a statement after a virtual crisis meeting.
“We will not allow any terrorists to threaten us. We remain committed to fighting terrorism with determination, determination and solidarity.”
Read | Afghan central bank governor flees, currency plummets during Taliban takeover
However, the ministers did not explicitly threaten the Taliban with military strikes as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg did in a press conference earlier this week.
Stoltenberg said on Tuesday: “If we see terrorist organizations again trying to establish, plan, and organize attacks on NATO allies and their countries, we will be able to combat terrorist organizations from a distance.”
In his opening speech on Friday, Stoltenberg said that NATO’s priority is to get people out of Kabul and keep the airport running.
He told reporters: “The situation is still difficult and unpredictable.” “The main challenge we face is to ensure that people arrive and enter the Kabul airport.”
Read | Afghan central bank governor flees, currency plummets during Taliban takeover
According to a NATO official, more than 18,000 people have taken off from Kabul since the Taliban took over the Afghan capital, but thousands have fled the country desperately, still gathering at the airport.
Stoltenberg thanked Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom for their efforts to establish security at Kabul Airport, and once again urged the Taliban to allow all foreign nationals and Afghans seeking to leave the country to pass safely.
Nearly two decades later, NATO completed its military operations in Afghanistan this summer and withdrew most of its troops from the country.
But the coalition still has a diplomatic representative office in Kabul, headquartered in Brussels, and it also serves as a forum for coordinating domestic measures in Afghanistan, such as the evacuation of citizens.
