LONDON – After the chaos of the fall of Kabul, Western democracies are trying to coordinate a common plan to deal with the increasingly dramatic evacuation of the Afghan capital’s airport in the short term and the attitude to be taken towards the Taliban in the long term. Boris Johnson presides today with this double purpose a virtual summit of the Group of Seven (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan), preparing to ask Joe Biden to extend the presence of American forces at the airport beyond the August 31 deadline to ensure that all citizens of NATO countries involved in the conflict and Afghans with a visa can leave, says a source in Downing Street.
The same request also comes from France (Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian supports the need for a “further postponement” of the deadline) and from Germany: the head of diplomacy Heiko Maas said that the Berlin authorities are talking “with the US, Turkey and other partners with the aim of allowing the airport to continue operating civilian operations to get people out of the country. But it is doubtful whether the American president will accept the request. Biden said on Sunday evening that he is ready to consider the hypothesis, but immediately added: “I hope to keep the deadline of 31”.
Defense Department spokesman John Kirby also confirmed yesterday that the plan is to complete the withdrawal by the end of the month, “because that is the deadline indicated by the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces”, Biden. Yesterday morning a Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, warned that “if the US or the UK wanted additional time to continue the evacuation, the answer is no. And there would be consequences.” The rumors indicate the growing fear of a suicide attack by groups linked to ISIS against the NATO forces that control the airport.
Even before the intervention of the Taliban spokesperson, a senior member of the London government, Undersecretary of Defense James Heappey, admitted: “The situation on the ground may not allow for an extension of the control of the airport by the our troops and those of other countries. Trying to prolong the evacuation, in an airport surrounded by Taliban checkpoints and in the midst of increasingly chaotic scenes of civilians trying to reach a plane, risks turning the airport into a war zone “.
In a phone call, Johnson and Biden “agreed to continue working together to ensure that those entitled to leave are able to do so, even after the initial phase of the evacuation ends.” But the British premier is already thinking about the next phase, possibly through third countries in the region, such as Pakistan, that the refugees will have to try to reach with their own means. Divisions in the EU also weigh on the summit, with Hungary and other countries opposed to hosting Afghan refugees.
Rather, the conservative premier wants to emphasize the West’s long-term policy towards Afghanistan: how to push for a coalition government in Kabul that takes into account all national ethnic groups, how to protect the rights acquired by women and young people over the past twenty years, how to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a base for terrorism again. Downing Street accepts that cooperation between Russia and China will be needed for this purpose: London is working with France on a UN Security Council resolution that can also be supported by Moscow and Beijing
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