(LibertySociety.com) – Since the withdrawal of US and NATO troops, as well as the fall of the Afghan government, the US has faced humanitarian and logistical challenges. On August 22, President Joe Biden mentioned the possibility of extending the negotiated August 31 Afghanistan extraction deadline to complete US withdrawal efforts. Speaking from Doha, Qatar that same afternoon, Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, warned in a Sky News interview that extending the deadline past the end of the month would bring “consequences”.
The extremist group also made it clear on Tuesday they aren’t in favor of allowing more Afghans to leave the country. With that statement, it doesn’t look like the president will be able to follow through on his promise of evacuating the very people who helped the US over the past 20 years.
President Biden says the U.S. completion of its mission by August 31 is contingent on Taliban allowing access to the airport.
Taliban said today it will not allow Afghan nationals to leave the country and opposes any extension of evacuation flights.https://t.co/oZ0fgnt6ip
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 24, 2021
Although the Taliban spokesman didn’t go into details about what would happen if US and allied troops didn’t leave Afghanistan by the end of the month, unconfirmed reports of the group murdering Afghans near the airport have surfaced.
Radicals made their point by closing the way to the airport to Afghans, making it more difficult to evacuate everyone. This action shows their commitment to trapping the country’s citizens inside and under their new rule.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the federal government still plans to extract “all Americans that want to leave.” But with the Taliban firmly drawing “a red line” in the sand, it’s difficult to know how many people this administration can save before time runs out.
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