Live updates Biden under pressure to stay in Kabul past Aug 31 deadline the Talibans red line

As the Taliban holds transition talks, part of efforts to form a new government for Afghanistan, the Biden administration is under increasing pressure to remain in Kabul past its declared Aug. 31 deadline.

With tens of thousands of Afghans waiting to evacuate amid ongoing scenes of chaos at the Kabul airport, U.S. allies have begun to voice concerns that the departures will require more time. A Taliban spokesman warned that the United States would be crossing a “red line” if the Biden administration keeps troops on the ground beyond the end of the month.

British media reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is widely expected to ask President Biden to extend the deadline at Tuesday’s meeting of the Group of Seven nations. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said his government was “concerned” about the deadline.

Biden has said the United States may push back its Aug. 31 deadline to facilitate more evacuations, adding that “our hope is we will not have to extend.” The United States and its allies have evacuated about 37,000 people since the militants swept through the country this month on the heels of the U.S. military withdrawal.

Here’s what to know

A firefight erupted Monday involving U.S. and German troops, unidentified gunmen and Afghan guards at Kabul airport, where heaving crowds have clamored to get on flights out of the country since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

The Taliban has sent hundreds of fighters to surround the Panjshir Valley, the last significant outpost in Afghanistan not controlled by the Islamist militant group.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that a second group of Americans in Kabul was airlifted to Hamid Karzai International Airport and that rescue operations were being employed “as needed” to bring more inside the perimeter.

Australia warns Afghan asylum seekers not to try to cross into the country by boatLink copied

Australia is airlifting its nationals and Afghan visa holders out of Kabul. But it sent a firm message Monday to Afghan asylum seekers who may contemplate crossing to Australia by boat: Don’t try it.

“Australia’s strong border protection policies have not â€" and will not â€" change,” Karen Andrews, Australia’s home affairs minister, said in a video Monday. “No one who arrives in Australia illegally by boat will ever settle here. Do not attempt an illegal journey by boat to Australia.”

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The statement underscored the Australian government’s hard-line policy toward asylum seekers. The country has received criticism for sending asylum seekers who attempt to reach the island nation by boat to offshore detention centers.

Australia has said it will grant 3,000 Afghan refugees humanitarian visas, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said last week that it may increase that number.

Australian forces, working with the United Kingdom, have evacuated more than 1,000 people from Kabul, including more than 450 people overnight. That group included Australians, Afghan visa holders, and nationals of allied countries, Morrison said Monday. Evacuees have been flown to Australia’s military base in the United Arab Emirates.

Morrison said Australia was in talks with allies about expanding evacuation operations. He said he and allied leaders had also discussed “some of the mistakes of what occurred many years ago after the surge, irregular movement and indeed illegal movement of people across Europe.”

“And, of course, we’ve faced that here in Australia,” he said. “So, we’re all conscious of that and dealing with that as humanely and as effectively as we can.”

Andrews made clear Monday that Afghans who arrived through unauthorized sea routes would not be eligible for resettlement in Australia.

“You have zero chance of success,” she said.

Other countries have also taken tough stances toward Afghan asylum seekers. French President Emmanuel Macron drew criticism for warning that Europe should “protect ourselves against significant irregular migration flows” after the Taliban takeover. Turkey has cracked down on Afghans trying to cross from Iran, the New York Times reported. And Greece has installed a fence along its border with Turkey amid concerns over a surge of Afghan migrants.

U.K. and other allies push back on Biden’s Aug. 31 Afghanistan departure deadlineLink copied

As the chaotic rush on the Kabul airport enters its second week, divisions are emerging between the United States and its allies about how to handle the future of Afghanistan policy, with a number of nations criticizing the Biden administration’s self-imposed timeline for pulling out of the airport.

Ahead of a virtual summit of Group of Seven leaders Tuesday, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told reporters that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would use the meeting to push President Biden to extend an Aug. 31 deadline to leave the airport.

Wallace, a former soldier, acknowledged that British forces in Kabul are ultimately reliant on U.S. partners during their ongoing rescue operations in Afghanistan. “It’s really important for people to understand the United States have over 6,000 people in Kabul airport, and when they withdraw that will take away the framework … and we will have to go as well,” Wallace said.

He said that if the U.S. timetable “extends even by a day or two, that will give us a day or two more to evacuate people.”

Key update‘Save our families’: Afghan interpreters plead with British government to help relatives left behind Link copied

LONDON â€" Afghan interpreters rallied in central London on Monday to express fears that their families were in danger and had only a short time to escape the Taliban before President Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to leave Kabul.

About 50 Afghans gathered outside Britain’s Home Office, chanting “save our families.” Many held aloft placards that featured graphic images of death and conflict and read: “do not leave anyone behind.”

Jamal Barack, 28, worked as an interpreter for the British army between 2007 and 2015 before seeking sanctuary in the U.K. Like many of the interpreters at the demonstration, he said he feared for those left behind and felt let down by the British government.

The government should prioritize the evacuation of “not just interpreters, but also interpreters’ families, and also the gardeners, chefs, drivers,” he said. “All of those people’s lives are at risk.”

Barack said he was worried about the fate of his family and especially his father, who worked as a gardener for the British army.

Hamidullah Sultani, 32, a former interpreter who moved to the U.K. in 2015 under its relocation program, said: “The British government helped us, but it’s not enough. They need to save our families who are at risk because of us.”

He said he was concerned for his parents, who are in Kabul but scared to leave the house. He last spoke to them three days ago.

Several protesters expressed a sense of guilt that their families remained in danger while they were powerless to do anything about it.

Earlier on Monday, Britain’s defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said that British evacuation effort would end when the United States withdraws its troops. “We are really down to hours now, not weeks. We have to make sure we exploit every minute to get people out,” he said.

Key updateNational security adviser says U.S. has capability to get Americans out, is uncertain on number leftLink copied

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that the Biden administration has helped thousands of Americans leave Afghanistan in the days after the president announced that the United States was withdrawing its troops from the troubled country.

“We’ve contacted Americans still in Afghanistan by email, by phone, by text to give them specific instructions,” Sullivan told reporters. “We have developed a method to safely and efficiently transfer groups of American citizens onto the airfield for operational reasons. I’m not going to go into further detail on this.”

Sullivan said the administration does not know the exact number of Americans waiting to leave Afghanistan, because it does not have a precise record of the number of Americans still in the country.

“When Americans have come to Afghanistan over the years, we asked them to register with the embassy,” he said. “Many have left without de-registering. Others never register at all. That is their right, of course, and it’s our responsibility to find them, which we are now doing hour by hour.”

“In the days remaining, we believe we have the wherewithal to get out the American citizens who want to leave Kabul,” he said. President Biden has put the deadline at Aug. 31.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have asked the White House to provide more details on plans to safely get all Americans out of Afghanistan as the Taliban expands its control in the country. Biden has said that it is his goal to get all Americans â€" as well as those who have assisted the U.S. effort in the country â€" to the United States safely as soon as possible.

The president said Sunday during a White House news conference that his team has had “discussions” about extending the deadline for the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan beyond its previously scheduled date of Aug. 31. Since Aug. 14, the United States has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of approximately 37,000 people, the White House said Monday.

Taliban names new central bank chief as economic collapse looms Link copied

The Taliban named a new acting governor of Afghanistan’s central bank on Monday, appointing the former head of its shadow economic commission as prices soared amid a shortage of cash.

Haji Mohammad Idris, an obscure Taliban official, will address “banking issues” and “the problems of the people” as acting governor of Da Afghanistan Bank, the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Afghanistan is facing a grave economic crisis now that the Taliban has seized power and many banks remain closed. In the week since the group swept to power, the prices of staple goods such as flour and oil have risen by as much as 35 percent, according to Bloomberg News.

Many ATMs have been emptied, and last week the nation’s currency plunged to record lows.

Idris has no formal financial training, but he worked closely on economic matters with former Taliban leader Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, a senior member of the group told Reuters on Monday. Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2016.

“There are many people who were unknown to the world but they held key positions and had great contributions. Haji Idris is among them,” the Taliban official said.

Banks will begin operating again Tuesday or Wednesday, Bloomberg News quoted finance ministry spokesman Mohammad Rafi Tabe as saying. He said the ministry’s staff will remain the same following the Taliban takeover.

Key updateAfghans arrive at Dulles Expo CenterLink copied

Shortly after 11 a.m. Monday, busloads of Afghan families began arriving to the Dulles Expo Center in Fairfax County.

The men and women, some with young children clutching their hand, looked exhausted after their journey from Kabul.

“How does it feel to be in the United States?” a TV news reporter asked, as families got off one bus and headed into the expo center to be processed.

“Great,” a man said. “We’re finally safe.”

Others ignored the questions shouted at them from behind two small fences that kept the Afghans shielded as they departed the bus. One man offered a quick thumbs up, then walked with his head down into the building.

Key updateU.S. military is going into Kabul to bring Americans to airport ‘as needed,’ Pentagon saysLink copied

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that a second group of Americans in Kabul was airlifted to Hamid Karzai International Airport and that rescue operations were being employed “as needed” to bring more inside the perimeter.

“On occasion, as needed, our commanders have the authority that they need to use their assets and their forces” to help those “who need to get to the airport … on a case-by-case basis,” Kirby told reporters.

“I don’t want to leave you with the idea that we’re patrolling the streets of Kabul,” he said, adding that the U.S. military was using “a variety of methods” to extract Americans from the city.

Last week, Kirby said that the military used helicopters to ferry 169 Americans who had gathered at a hotel near the airport. On Monday, he said that “there has been at least one additional instance where rotary aircraft was used to get Americans outside the airport into the airport.”

In a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday, the U.S. military brought almost 11,000 people out of Kabul, while other flights transported approximately an additional 5,000 people. That is the first time that the military has met â€" and exceeded â€" its estimated capacity goal of 5,000 to 9,000 evacuations daily.

“The goal is to get as many people out as fast as possible,” Kirby said. “While we’re glad to see the numbers that we got out yesterday, we’re not going to rest on any laurels.”

Kirby promised that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would discuss extending the Aug. 31 deadline with President Biden “if he needs to” but cautioned that “we’re just not at that point right now.”

It is not precisely clear how many Americans â€" and how many Afghans eligible for evacuation â€" remain. Last week, before efforts ramped up, Biden administration officials estimated that up to 15,000 Americans remained in the country.

Kirby said that “it’s conceivable that even without a U.S. military footprint there, people will still be able to get out of Kabul.” There are presently 5,800 troops on the ground.

More than 6,700 evacuees from Afghanistan arrive at Ramstein Air BaseLink copied

BERLIN â€" More than 6,700 evacuees from Afghanistan had arrived at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany as of Monday morning, with arrivals describing a chaotic situation as people are vetted to travel on to America.

The base in the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate has been converted into a temporary waypoint for evacuees. The arrivals have been designated as “qualified evacuees,” but some lack documents, said Dominik Halnaif, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Force’s 86th Airlift Wing.

“A lot of these folks don’t even have their papers, so it’s challenging,” he said.

While Ramstein has a long history of involvement in transporting troops and support staff between the United States and theaters of operation, Halnaif said that there was no real precedent for this type of humanitarian effort involving large numbers of civilians in such a short period of time.

Men have been separated from women and children, with the latter housed in hangars and the men in tents. More than 9,500 cots have been set up. There is a common space available for husbands and fathers to meet their families.

One military flight carrying 60 evacuees left Monday morning for the United States, Halnaif said. Evacuees are meant to stay no more than 10 days on the base under an agreement with Germany.

Najwa Naderi, a U.S. citizen who manages the Nowzad animal sanctuary in Kabul and arrived early Saturday, said conditions were difficult.

“There are not enough bathrooms; there have been fights here over food,” said Naderi, who added that she is 33 weeks pregnant.

Naderi’s husband is Afghan, and her 1-year-old son is a U.S. citizen. She said she hopes to get on a flight to the United States later Monday or Tuesday. Like the other evacuees at the base, she was first airlifted to Doha, Qatar, before being flown on to Ramstein.

Halnaif said the situation was “complicated” and stretching resources. A local contractor has been charged with providing 30,000 meals a day starting Monday, he said.

Key updateFirefight at Kabul airport kills one, U.S. and German soldiers involvedLink copied

A firefight erupted early Monday involving U.S. and German troops, unidentified gunmen and Afghan guards at Kabul airport, where heaving crowds have clamored to get on flights out of the country since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

An Afghan guard was killed and three others were injured in the gunfight at an airport gate, the German armed forces said in a Monday tweet, without elaborating.

The situation at the airport is under control, and all airport gates have been closed, two NATO officials told Reuters.

A spokesman for the German military said he could not comment on whether the U.S. and German forces at the airport came under direct fire, saying only that gunfire in the vicinity sparked the flare-up.

“When they noticed fire, they returned fire,” the spokesman said of the coalition forces, declining to be named in line with protocol. He said he could not provide information on how long the engagement lasted or who the attackers were.

The wounded Afghan security forces are being treated at a Norwegian-run medical facility at the airport, he said.

According to U.S. military spokesman Capt. William Urban, the incident began when “an unknown hostile actor fired upon Afghan security forces involved in monitoring access to the gate" and the Afghan and coalition troops returned fire. He said several Afghans were wounded, without specifying the exact number.

Meanwhile, some of the first evacuation flights out of Afghanistan to Germany have arrived at the U.S. air base in Ramstein, the latest transit point for evacuees. The base now hosts roughly 5,000 Afghan evacuees.

Among them: an Afghan woman who gave birth to a baby girl in the cargo bay of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft, just moments after landing at Ramstein on Saturday.

The German military has so far airlifted more than 2,700 people out of Afghanistan, the Defense Ministry said Monday. “And we are flying on. We will fly as many as possible out of #Kabul as long as possible,” it tweeted. “The situation at the airport remains very difficult.”

The return of Taliban militants to the streets of Kabul and other cities around the country has sent thousands of foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans to the capital’s airport, the only exit point from Afghanistan not controlled by the Islamist group. Western forces have flown roughly 28,000 people out of the country since the Taliban takeover, President Biden said Sunday.

Many evacuees have passed through the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, while Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have also agreed to temporarily host others fleeing Taliban rule.

U.S. is still a ‘global leader,’ Harris says on Asia trip, as allies fret over China, AfghanistanLink copied

Successive U.S. administrations have pledged to pivot away from entanglements in the Middle East and focus American foreign policy on the Indo-Pacific, where a string of nations are anxious about China’s growing military clout and hungry for U.S. engagement.

“The current narrative now is that America is withdrawing, which puts even more pressure on her trip,” said Huong Le Thu, a nonresident fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The United States “needs a win.”

Here’s how the U.S. government can order commercial airlines to help Afghan evacuationsLink copied

It was the height of the Cold War, and the Soviet Union was attempting to gain control of Berlin by cutting ground traffic to and from West Berlin, which was occupied by Britain, France and the United States.

So the Truman administration decided to airlift food and supplies into the city in a massive humanitarian aid operation that would become known as the Berlin Airlift.

Less widely known is that the food, water and medicine airlifted to West Berlin in 1948 was the beginning of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), a program that Biden says will help the Afghanistan evacuation effort in the coming days.

Supplies from American planes helped sustain more than 2 million people in besieged West Berlin for nearly a year.

In the wake of the operation, the Defense Department recognized the need for additional airlifts to support national defense emergencies and created the CRAF, according to the Transportation Department.

More than 70 years later, the United States has ordered the activation of the little-used post-World War II program that will send 18 commercial airplanes to aid the U.S. military evacuation of American nationals and refugees from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Iran restarts fuel exports to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, report says Link copied

Iran in recent days resumed some gasoline exports to Afghanistan after receiving a request from Taliban leaders seeking to counter high fuel prices, Reuters reported Monday quoting an industry official.

“The Taliban sent messages to Iran saying ‘you can continue the exports of petroleum products,’” Hamid Hosseini, spokesman for Iran’s Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union said, Reuters reported.

The group, which now controls nearly all of Afghanistan, cut tariffs on fuel imports by as much as 70 percent, Hosseini said.

Iranian traders were wary of again exporting to Afghanistan as the security situation deteriorated, according to the report. In February, a fuel tanker exploded at a border crossing on the Iran-Afghanistan border, causing a massive fire that burned more than 500 trucks carrying natural gas and fuel, the Associated Press reported at the time.

The Taliban has inherited an economy in crisis and is blocked from accessing most of Afghanistan’s $9 billion in central bank reserves. Under pressure from the Biden administration, the International Monetary Fund has also withheld $450 million in aid for Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in control.

The United States previously allowed Afghanistan to import fuel from Iran, despite economic sanctions targeting Tehran’s oil and gas exports.

Taliban insists al-Qaeda not found in AfghanistanLink copied

A Taliban spokesman denied that al-Qaeda has any foothold in Afghanistan, dismissing fears that the militants who now rule the country could provide the extremist network with a safe haven.

“They are not present in Afghanistan in the first place,” Mohammed Naeem said in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s al-Hadath TV that aired late Sunday. When pressed, he insisted there was no relationship with al-Qaeda.

The remarks came after back-and-forth comments from U.S. officials in recent days about whether al-Qaeda still has a presence in the country, nearly 20 years after the United States helped topple the Taliban in Afghanistan for sheltering the group behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al-Qaeda gone?” President Biden asked last week, justifying the pullout of U.S. troops from the country, a move that critics deemed a hasty abandonment of Afghanistan after two decades of war. The decision has come under fire after the Taliban swept into the capital, Kabul, earlier this month, ousting the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later said Biden was referring to al-Qaeda’s capacity to carry out another attack on the scale of the 9/11 strikes. But he acknowledged that “remnants” remain in the country.

Naeem, the spokesman for the Taliban’s political bureau, also denied reports that Khalil Haqqani, who is sought by Washington for ties to al-Qaeda operations, was overseeing security in Kabul.

In response to a question about the prospect of the Taliban giving protection to al-Qaeda fighters, including those from neighboring countries, Naeem said that would not happen. “How many times have I said that we will not allow anyone to use the lands of Afghanistan against the security of other nations?” he asked. “Anyone, anyone, anyone from any country.”

About 10,400 evacuated from Kabul on U.S. military flights in 24-hour periodLink copied

About 10,400 people were flown out of Afghanistan on U.S. military flights during a 24-hour period ending early Monday Eastern time, the White House announced, reflecting a significant increase in the pace of evacuations.

In addition to those evacuated on 28 U.S. military flights out of the international airport in Kabul, about another 5,900 were flown out on 61 coalition aircraft, according to the White House.

The White House did not provide a breakdown of how many of those evacuated were U.S. citizens.

With the latest evacuations, the U.S. military has now flown out about 37,000 people since Aug. 14, the White House said.

The number evacuated during the recent 24-hour period exceeds what the military recently said was a capacity of 5,000 to 9,000 per day.

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