As evacuations from Kabul International Airport continue, the United Kingdom, France and Germany have warned the United States to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan beyond August 31. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to formally advance the request during the extraordinary G7 summit convened by London to deal with the crisis. US President Joe Biden himself reported at a press conference on Sunday evening that discussions were underway on a possible extension of the operations. The statement alerted the Taliban that they threatened consequences in the event of a prolonged stay of US troops. A new government will not be formed until the last American soldier is gone, a source close to the Koranic students told AFP. The Pentagon later clarified that the goal remains to complete the evacuations by the end of the month, and reported constant contacts with the mujahideen. The situation in the country remains tense. In the past few hours, an Afghan soldier was killed in a fire fight just outside Kabul airport, while three other people were injured. North of the capital, the Taliban sent fringes of fighters to put an end to the resistance carried out by opponents led by Ahmad Massoud, son of the legendary ‘Lion of Panshir’, leader of the resistance against extremists in the 1990s. The Taliban announced in the morning that they had taken control of three districts and that they had put the Panshir region, where opponents, mostly of Tajik ethnicity, gathered under siege. But they said they wanted to settle the matter peacefully. An anti-Taliban resistance group has claimed that thousands are ready to fight in Panshir. We have “thousands of forces ready for resistance,” but we want to pursue peaceful negotiations first, Ali Nazary, head of foreign relations for the Afghanistan National Resistance Front (NRF), told the BBC. “If these fail, then we will not accept any kind of aggression,” he added. And while Russia has announced that it does not want to interfere in the confrontation between the two factions, Paris and Berlin have expressed the need to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of Western troops.
«We are talking with the United States, Turkey and other partners with the aim of facilitating civil operations from Kabul airport to allow the evacuation of people beyond 31 August. We will also have to continue talking to the Taliban about this problem, and that is what we are doing, ”said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. “We are worried about the August 31 deadline set by the United States,” echoed the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. “More time is needed to complete the ongoing operations,” he added. The goal, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby reiterated in the evening, “is to get more people out as quickly as possible” and “try to do it in the best way possible. possible by the end of the month. “In the last 24 hours, 16 thousand people have been evacuated from the international airport of Kabul. According to reports from CNN, around 20 thousand people are still waiting to be rescued in the airport area.
Draghi meets the ministers Di Maio and Guerini
The Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, met the Foreign and Defense Ministers, Luigi Di Maio and Lorenzo Guerini, the Undersecretary with responsibility for the Security of the Republic, Franco Gabrielli, and the Director General of Dis, at Palazzo Chigi this afternoon. Elisabetta Belloni, to discuss the latest developments in the situation in Afghanistan in view of the extraordinary G7 meeting tomorrow afternoon.