Doha: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the Taliban had reaffirmed a pledge to allow the Afghan people to freely leave Afghanistan after the meeting of the evacuation evacuation evacuation.
President Joe Biden has faced mounting pressure amid reports that several hundred people, also including Americans, have been prevented during the week from flying out of the airport in northern Afghanistan.
The Taliban told the United States that “they would let people with travel documents to leave freely,” Blinken told a news conference in Doha where he and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Qatar opposite number.
“We will hold them to it,” he added.
Qatar said that the Kabul airport, largely closed since the conclusion of the Washington chaotic withdrawal from the country in late August, will hopefully soon be reopened, potentially opening the corridor is vital to leave.
“The whole international community was looking to the Taliban to uphold that commitment,” Blinken said, referring to the UN Security Council resolution urging safe passage.
Biden senior cabinet members on arrival Monday with the ruling Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in which they expressed their gratitude for his help Washington to Doha with Afghanistan Airlift.
Qatar is a transit point for almost half of the more than 120,000 people were evacuated from Afghanistan in the last days of the war the United States 20 years when the Taliban took over.
Doha is the basis of international diplomatic Blinken Taliban though aides said he has no plans to meet him as Washington instead wait to assess the actions of the group in power to determine the level of involvement.
United States on Monday to facilitate the evacuation of four Americans of the same family with the ground outside Afghanistan, the first departure arranged by Washington since the military withdrawal.
A state department official said the Taliban aware of the operation and did not interfere.
But non-governmental organizations say that about 600 to 1,300 people – including girls and US citizens – are stuck at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Marina Legree, founder and executive director of a non-governmental organization active little America in Afghanistan, told AFP that the Taliban are not letting anyone through.
Blinken said that the Taliban do not block those with valid travel documents but not all of the passengers on charter flights have papers, denying there was a “hostage situation” in Mazar-i-Sharif.
He said there are inevitable constraints to hire low because the United States does not have personnel on the ground.
“We do not have the means to verify the accuracy of the manifest, the identity of the passengers on this flight, aviation security protocols, or where they plan to land – among other problems.
It is a real problem,” he said.
“We are involved when we spoke to solve this problem,” he said.
US officials say they no longer control the airspace of Afghanistan and that the main airport in Kabul, the US military seized in August for the evacuation, broken.
Qatar technical team has been deployed to Kabul to assess the feasibility of airports and start preparing to return to the operation to allow the evacuation and the arrival of humanitarian supplies needed badly.
Blinken in a meeting with the ruler of the Gulf state was praised “the extraordinary support of Qatar to facilitate the safe transit of US citizens, our partners, and others at risk in Afghanistan,” the State Department said.
Austin acknowledged that it creates an obstacle withdrawal but said the United States is committed to stop the threat from Afghanistan.
“There is no question of it (withdrawal) will make it more difficult to identify and engage threats emanating from the region,” said Austin.