Six private chartered planes attempted to evacuate 1,600 people (including more than 100 Americans) from Afghanistan, but they have been grounded. Taliban During negotiations with the US State Department, an NGO official responsible for evacuation told Weekly newspaper.
Potential passengers have not yet boarded the planes in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which were leased by the Nazareth Foundation and Mercury One charity founded by Christian conservative media celebrity Glenn Baker.
The other three evacuation flights — two chartered by the International Development Organization Sayara and one chartered by the local Alaska company Goldbelt, Inc. — planned to carry at least 19 Americans and an unknown number of Afghans, were also grounded by the Taliban, waiting Customs clearance, the second senior NGO official told Weekly newspaper.
The Mercury One rescue mission was funded entirely by private funds. Six planes-two Airbus 340s and four Boeing 737s-were chartered from Kam Air, Afghanistan’s largest private airline, for eight evacuation flights to Gulf countries. The other three flights of Sayora and Goldbelt are also chartered from Kam Air, but their intended destinations are currently unclear.
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Both NGO officials stated that the Taliban had grounded their flights due to the breakdown of negotiations with the State Department. One of the officials added that the Taliban might try to “shake” the airline or the State Department in exchange for take-off permission.
The second official said that the negotiations between the Taliban and the State Department were “stalemate” and therefore the Taliban had not yet “approved the flight”, adding that negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban to approve the take-off of private jets had been delayed for at least a few days, and the evacuees were still Hide.
Earlier reports indicated that there were hundreds of Afghans on board, many of whom did not have visas or passports. Representative Michael McCall described the incident as a “hostage situation.”White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein Tell CNN On Sunday, “about 100” American citizens were still in Afghanistan.
Both NGO officials rejected the description of “hostages,” but told Weekly newspaper The passengers included at least 142 Americans-123 of them on Mercury One-funded flights, and at least 19 on Sayara and Goldbelt charter flights.
The first NGO official said: “The plane is currently empty, and the passengers are still in the safe house waiting for the Taliban’s permission to take off.” “I have more than 1,600 people on the main manifest who want to fly, and 123 of them are from the United States. People, the rest are special immigrant visas.”
The first NGO official said that the evacuation flight cost the Nazareth Foundation and Mercury One charity each $750,000.
Officials associated with NGOs stated that they did not negotiate directly with the Taliban because the FCPA of 1977 “prohibited US citizens and entities from bribing foreign government officials for commercial gain”.
According to reports, with the help of donors, Nazarene Fund and Mercury One raised more than $28 million to help evacuate Christians and other vulnerable religious minorities from Afghanistan.Baker shared a photo of the plane on the tarmac Instagram On August 26, write “one of the last planes to leave #kabul before the explosion”.
The State Department did not respond Weekly newspaperRequest for comment on Sunday night.However, earlier today, a State Department spokesperson told Weekly newspaper Due to lack of resources and personnel in Afghanistan, it could not confirm whether the Americans tried to evacuate by chartered flight.
“We have no ground personnel, we have no air assets in the country, and we do not control the airspace-either in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region,” the spokesperson said, adding that it was still “ready to help” American citizens and Afghanistan refugee.
With the last military aircraft leaving the Taliban-ruled Kabul International Airport on August 30, the two-year war in Afghanistan led by the United States ended.Secretary of State Anthony winked It has been stated that there is “no deadline” for the evacuation of the remaining American citizens who want to leave.
