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US Completes Withdrawal from Afghanistan, Agreement with Taliban Let Afghans Leave, Diplomatic Mission Operates in Qatar

August 31, 2021

 

A US CH-47 Chinook is loaded onto a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 28, 2021 a handout US forces

 

Secretary Antony J. Blinken’s Remarks on Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, D.C.

US Department of State, AUGUST 30, 2021

SECRETARY BLINKEN: 

Eighteen days ago, the United States and our allies began our evacuation and relocation operation in Kabul.  As you just heard from the Pentagon, a few hours ago, that operation was completed.

More than 123,000 people have been safely flown out of Afghanistan.  That includes about 6,000 American citizens.  This has been a massive military, diplomatic, and humanitarian undertaking – one of the most difficult in our nation’s history – and an extraordinary feat of logistics and coordination under some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable.

Many, many people made this possible.

I want to commend our outstanding diplomats who worked around the clock, and around the world, to coordinate the operation.  They volunteered for duty at the Kabul airport.  They flew to transit countries to help process thousands of Afghans bound for the United States.  They deployed to ports of entry and American military bases to welcome Afghans to their new homes.  They staffed a 24/7 task force here in Washington, overseen by Deputy Secretary Brian McKeon.  And they built a list of Americans possibly seeking to leave Afghanistan, then worked to contact every single one of them, repeatedly – making 55,000 phone calls, sending 33,000 e-mails since August 14th.  They solved problem after problem to keep the mission moving forward.

They did this because – for the thousands of State Department and USAID employees who have served in Afghanistan in the past 20 years – this evacuation operation was very personal.  Many worked hand in hand for years with Afghan partners, many of whom became trusted friends.  We also lost cherished members of our Foreign Service community in Afghanistan; we’ll never forget them.  Helping Americans, our foreign partners who have been by our side for 20 years, and Afghans at risk at this critical moment, was more than just a high-stakes assignment for our team.  It was a sacred duty.  And the world saw how our diplomats rose to the challenge with determination and heart.

U.S. service members in Kabul did heroic work securing the airport, protecting civilians of many nationalities – including tens of thousands of Afghans – and airlifting them out.  They’re also providing vital support right now, caring for Afghans on military bases in Europe, the Middle East, and here in the United States.

We’ve seen pictures of U.S. service members at the Kabul airport cradling babies, comforting families.  That’s the kind of compassionate courage our men and women in uniform exemplify.  They carried out this mission under the constant threat of terrorist violence – and four days ago, 11 Marines, one Navy medic, and one soldier were killed by a suicide bomber at the airport gate, as well as scores of Afghans.

Nearly all of them were in their early 20s – just babies or toddlers on September 11th, 2001.

These deaths are a devastating loss for our country.  We at the State Department feel them deeply.  We have a special bond with the Marines.  The first person that you see when you visit an American embassy is a Marine.  They guard our diplomatic missions; they keep us safe around the world.  We couldn’t do our jobs without them.  And we will never forget their sacrifice – nor will we forget what they achieved.  The most exceptional among us perform a lifetime’s work of service in a short time here on Earth.  So. it was for our exceptional brothers and sisters who died last week.

Finally, I want to thank our allies and partners.  This operation was a global endeavor in every way.  Many countries stepped up with robust contributions to the airlift, including working by our side at the airport.  Some are now serving as transit countries, allowing evacuees to be registered and processed on the way to their final destinations.  Others have agreed to resettle Afghan refugees permanently, and we hope more will do so in the days and weeks ahead.  We are truly grateful for their support.

Now, U.S. military flights have ended, and our troops have departed Afghanistan.  A new chapter of America’s engagement with Afghanistan has begun.  It’s one in which we will lead with our diplomacy.  The military mission is over.  A new diplomatic mission has begun.

So here is our plan for the days and weeks ahead.

First, we’ve built a new team to help lead this new mission.

As of today, we have suspended our diplomatic presence in Kabul, and transferred our operations to Doha, Qatar, which will soon be formally notified to Congress.  Given the uncertain security environment and political situation in Afghanistan, it was the prudent step to take.  And let me take this opportunity to thank our outstanding charge d’affaires in Kabul, Ambassador Ross Wilson, who came out of retirement in January 2020 to lead our embassy in Afghanistan, and has done exceptional, courageous work during a highly challenging time.

For the time being, we will use this post in Doha to manage our diplomacy with Afghanistan, including consular affairs, administering humanitarian assistance, and working with allies, partners, and regional and international stakeholders to coordinate our engagement and messaging to the Taliban.  Our team there will be led by Ian McCary, who has served as our deputy chief of mission in Afghanistan for this past year.  No one’s better prepared to do the job.

Second, we will continue our relentless efforts to help Americans, foreign nationals, and Afghans leave Afghanistan if they choose.

Let me talk briefly about the Americans who remain in Afghanistan.

We made extraordinary efforts to give Americans every opportunity to depart the country – in many cases talking, and sometimes walking them into the airport.

Of those who self-identified as Americans in Afghanistan, who were considering leaving the country, we’ve thus far received confirmation that about 6,000 have been evacuated or otherwise departed.  This number will likely continue to grow as our outreach and arrivals continue.

We believe there are still a small number of Americans – under 200 and likely closer to 100 – who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave.  We’re trying to determine exactly how many.  We’re going through manifests and calling and texting through our lists, and we’ll have more details to share, as soon as possible.  Part of the challenge with fixing a precise number is that there are long-time residents of Afghanistan who have American passports, and who were trying to determine whether or not they wanted to leave.  Many are dual-citizen Americans with deep roots and extended families in Afghanistan, who have resided there for many years.  For many, it’s a painful choice.

Our commitment to them and to all Americans in Afghanistan – and everywhere in the world – continues.  The protection and welfare of Americans abroad remains the State Department’s most vital and enduring mission.  If an American in Afghanistan tells us that they want to stay for now, and then in a week or a month or a year they reach out and say, “I’ve changed my mind,” we will help them leave.

Additionally, we’ve worked intensely to evacuate and relocate Afghans who worked alongside us, and are at particular risk of reprisal.  We’ve gotten many out, but many are still there.  We will keep working to help them.  Our commitment to them has no deadline.

Third, we will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.

The Taliban has committed to let anyone with proper documents leave the country in a safe and orderly manner.  They’ve said this privately and publicly many times.  On Friday, a senior Taliban official said it again on television and radio, and I quote: “Any Afghans may leave the country, including those who work for Americans, if they want and for whatever reason there may be,” end quote.

More than half the world’s countries have joined us in insisting that the Taliban let people travel outside Afghanistan freely.  As of today, more than 100 countries have said that they expect the Taliban to honor travel authorizations by our countries.  And just a few hours ago, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that enshrines that responsibility – laying the groundwork to hold the Taliban accountable if they renege.

So, the international chorus on this is strong, and it will stay strong.  We will hold the Taliban to their commitment on freedom of movement for foreign nationals, visa holders, at-risk Afghans.

Fourth, we will work to secure their safe passage.

This morning, I met with the foreign ministers of all the G7 countries – United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan – as well as Qatar, Turkey, the European Union, and the secretary general of NATO.  We discussed how we will work together to facilitate safe travel out of Afghanistan, including by reopening Kabul’s civilian airport as soon as possible – and we very much appreciate the efforts of Qatar and Turkey, in particular, to make this happen.

This would enable a small number of daily charter flights, which is a key for anyone who wants to depart from Afghanistan moving forward.

We are also working to identify ways to support Americans, legal permanent residents, and Afghans who have worked with us and who may choose to depart via overland routes.

We have no illusion that any of this will be easy or rapid.  This will be an entirely different phase from the evacuation that just concluded.  It will take time to work through a new set of challenges.  But we will stay at it.

John Bass – our former ambassador to Afghanistan who returned to Kabul two weeks ago to help lead our evacuation efforts at the airport – will spearhead our ongoing work across the State Department to help American citizens and permanent residents, citizens of allied nations, Special Immigrant Visa applicants, and Afghans at high risk, if any of those people wish to depart Afghanistan.  We’re deeply grateful for all that John did in Kabul, and for his continued commitment to this mission, as well as the extraordinary consular officers who were serving by his side.

Fifth, we will stay focused on counterterrorism.

The Taliban has made a commitment to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the United States or our allies, including al-Qaida and the Taliban’s sworn enemy, ISIS-K.  Here too, we will hold them accountable to that commitment.  But while we have expectations of the Taliban, that doesn’t mean we will rely on the Taliban.  We’ll remain vigilant in monitoring threats ourselves.  And we’ll maintain robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region to neutralize those threats, if necessary, as we demonstrated in the past few days by striking ISIS facilitators and imminent threats in Afghanistan – and as we do in places around the world where we do not have military forces on the ground.

Let me speak directly to our engagement with the Taliban across these and other issues.  We engaged with the Taliban during the past few weeks to enable our evacuation operations.  Going forward, any engagement with a Taliban-led government in Kabul will be driven by one thing only: our vital national interests.

If we can work with a new Afghan government in a way that helps secure those interests – including the safe return of Mark Frerichs, a U.S. citizen who has been held hostage in the region since early last year – and in a way that brings greater stability to the country and region and protects the gains of the past two decades, we will do it.  But we will not do it on the basis of trust or faith.  Every step we take will be based not on what a Taliban-led government says, but what it does to live up to its commitments.

The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support.  Our message is: any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned.

The Taliban can do that by meeting commitments and obligations – on freedom of travel; respecting the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women and minorities; upholding its commitments on counterterrorism; not carrying out reprisal violence against those who choose to stay in Afghanistan; and forming an inclusive government that can meet the needs and reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people.

Sixth, we will continue our humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.

The conflict has taken a terrible toll on the Afghan people.  Millions are internally displaced.  Millions are facing hunger, even starvation.  The COVID-19 pandemic has also hit Afghanistan hard.  The United States will continue to support humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.  Consistent with our sanctions on the Taliban, the aid will not flow through the government, but rather through independent organizations, such as UN agencies and NGOs.  And we expect that those efforts will not be impeded by the Taliban or anyone else.

And seventh, we will continue our broad international diplomacy across all these issues and many others.

We believe we can accomplish far more – and exert far greater leverage – when we work in coordination with our allies and partners.  Over the last two weeks, we’ve had a series of intensive diplomatic engagements with allies and partners to plan and coordinate the way ahead in Afghanistan.  I’ve met with the foreign ministers of NATO and the G7.  I’ve spoken one-on-one with dozens of my counterparts.  Last week, President Biden met with the leaders of the G7 countries.  And Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has been convening a group of 28 allies and partners from all regions of the world every other day.

Going forward, we’ll coordinate closely with countries in the region and around the world – as well as with leading international organizations, NGOs, and the private sector.  Our allies and partners share our objectives and are committed to working with us.

I’ll have more to say on these matters in the coming days.  The main point I want to drive home here today is that America’s work in Afghanistan continues.  We have a plan for what’s next.  We’re putting it into action.

This moment also demands reflection.  The war in Afghanistan was a 20-year endeavor.  We must learn its lessons, and allow those lessons to shape how we think about fundamental questions of national security and foreign policy.  We owe that to future diplomats, policymakers, military leaders, service members.  We owe that to the American people.

But as we do, we will remain relentlessly focused on today and on the future.  We’ll make sure we’re finding every opportunity to make good on our commitment to the Afghan people, including by welcoming thousands of them into our communities, as the American people have done many times before with generosity and grace throughout our history.

In this way, we’ll honor all those brave men and women, from the United States and many other countries, who risked or sacrificed their lives as part of this long mission, right up to today.

Secretary Antony J. Blinken's Remarks on Afghanistan - United States Department of State

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U.S. completes withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan after 20-year war

Reuters, August 30, 2021

The United States completed the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan on Monday, ending 20 years of war that culminated in the militant Taliban's return to power.

Forced into a hasty and humiliating exit, Washington and its NATO allies carried out a massive but chaotic airlift over the past two weeks, but still left behind tens of thousands of Afghans who helped Western countries and might have qualified for evacuation.

Celebratory gunfire rang out in Kabul after completion of the U.S. pullout that ended America's longest war.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf said: "The last U.S. soldier has left Kabul airport and our country gained complete independence," Al Jazeera TV reported on Monday.

A contingent of Americans, estimated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken as under 200 and possibly closer to 100, wanted to leave but were unable to get on the last flights.

President Joe Biden, in a statement, defended his decision to stick to a Tuesday deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces even though it meant not everyone who wanted out could get out.

He said the world would hold the Taliban to their commitment to allow safe passage for those to want to leave Afghanistan.

"Now, our 20-year military presence in Afghanistan has ended," said Biden, who thanked the U.S. military for carrying out the dangerous evacuation. He plans to address the American people on Tuesday afternoon.

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Biden has drawn heavy criticism from Republicans and some of his fellow Democrats for his handling of Afghanistan since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month after a lightning advance.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the U.S. withdrawal a “national disgrace” that was “the direct result of President Biden’s cowardice and incompetence.”

"The president made the morally indefensible decision to leave Americans behind. Dishonor was the president’s choice," he said in a statement.

But Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse tweeted: "Bravo to our diplomats, military, and intelligence agencies. An airlift of 120,000 people in that dangerous and tumultuous situation is something no one else could do."

Biden has said the United States long ago achieved the objectives it set in ousting the Taliban in 2001 for harboring al Qaeda militants who masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The 20-year conflict took the lives of nearly 2,500 U.S. troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans and cost some $2 trillion.

Only 38% of Americans approved of Biden's handling of the Afghan pullout, while 51% disapproved, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday. Three-quarters of respondents wanted U.S. forces to remain in the country until all American civilians could get out.

General Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, told a Pentagon briefing that the chief U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, was on the last C-17 flight out, which left at one minute before midnight in Kabul.

"Every single U.S. service member is now out of Afghanistan. I can say that with 100% certainty," he said.

"There's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out. But I think if we'd stayed another 10 days, we wouldn't have gotten everybody out," McKenzie told reporters.

PERILOUS EVACUATIONS

Blinken said the United States was prepared to work with the new Taliban government if it does not carry out reprisals against opponents in the country.

"The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support. Our position is any legitimacy and support will have to be earned," he said.

More than 122,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul since Aug. 14, the day before the Taliban regained control of the country two decades after being removed from power by a U.S.-led invasion.

Tuesday's deadline for troops to leave was set by Biden, fulfilling an agreement reached with the Taliban by his predecessor, Donald Trump to end U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

The United States and its Western allies scrambled to save citizens of their own countries as well as translators, local embassy staff, civil rights activists, journalists and other Afghans vulnerable to reprisals.

The evacuations became even more perilous when a suicide bomb attack claimed by Islamic State - enemy of both the West and the Taliban - killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans waiting by the airport gates on Thursday.

Biden promised after the bloody Kabul airport attack to hunt down the people responsible.

The departure took place after U.S. anti-missile defenses intercepted rockets fired at Kabul's airport.

A U.S. official said initial reports did not indicate any U.S. casualties from as many as five missiles fired on the airport. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.

In recent days, Washington carried out two air strikes. It said both hit Islamic State targets, one thwarting an attempted suicide bombing in Kabul on Sunday by destroying a car packed with explosives, but which Afghans said had struck civilians.

TALIBAN IN CONTROL

Most of the more than 20 allied countries involved in airlifting Afghans and their citizens out of Kabul said they had completed evacuations by Friday. Britain, closely involved in the war from the start, said on Saturday it had finished evacuations and withdrawn the last of its troops.

While the Taliban have sought to present a more moderate face to the world and erase memories of the harsh fundamentalist rule they practised in the 1990s, the desperation by many Afghans to flee the country showed clearly the fear inspired by the Islamist group.

Their seizure of the city on Aug. 15 after the Western-backed government collapsed without a fight and President Ashraf Ghani fled, completed a rapid campaign that saw them sweep up all the country's major cities in a week.

Now in full control of the country, the Taliban must revive a war-shattered economy but without being able to count on the billions of dollars in foreign aid that flowed to the previous ruling elite and fed systemic corruption.

Cut off from some $9 billion in foreign reserves and missing thousands of educated specialists who have joined the exodus, the inexperienced new administration must deal with a collapse in the afghani currency and rising food inflation.

Banks remain closed, despite promises they would reopen, and the economic hardship facing those left behind has worsened dramatically.

The population outside the cities is facing what U.N. officials have called a catastrophic humanitarian situation worsened by a severe drought. The U.N. refugee agency says up to half a million Afghans could flee their homeland by year-end.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus and Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Rupam Jain; Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Writing by Clarence Fernandez, Peter Graff, William Maclean and Steve Holland; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Catherine Evans and Peter Cooney

U.S. completes withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan after 20-year war | Reuters

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Taliban Agreement to Let Afghans Leave Is ‘Positive,’ US Says

By Ayaz Gul

VOA, August 28, 2021 07:05 PM

ISLAMABAD -

The United States on Saturday hailed the Taliban’s commitment that no one will be prevented from traveling out of Afghanistan after August 31, the deadline President Joe Biden has set for all U.S. and NATO troops to exit the country.

“The statement is positive. We, our allies, and the international community will hold them to these commitments,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter.

Friday’s address by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, deputy head of the Taliban’s Qatar-based political commission, was aimed at easing fears his Islamist movement might not permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals, and for Afghans who worked with foreign forces in the country past August 31.

“Let the foreign forces withdraw first … and then our compatriots — whether they have worked with the Americans or otherwise — may leave the country if they want and for whatever reason there may be. All airports, particularly Kabul airport, will be open for their travel,” Stanikzai said.

Thousands of people, including journalists, former government officials and civil society activists, have struggled to get on the last flights leaving the Afghan capital’s beleaguered international airport before the deadline for the Western evacuation operation.

Suicide bomber

On Thursday, a suicide bomber blew himself up on the perimeter of Kabul’s airport, killing about 170 people, including 13 U.S. service members. An Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the carnage.

The scramble to leave the country stemmed from fears the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul would see the imposition of their strict version of Islamic laws in Afghanistan, which the fundamentalist group had enforced during its rule from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban at the time barred women from leaving their homes without a male relative, barred girls from receiving an education, and banned music, among other controversial measures, leading to international isolation of Afghanistan.

The Islamist group has now promised to institute what it says will be an “inclusive Islamic government” in Kabul, saying the arrangement respects human rights, particularly the rights of women to study and work.

In his Friday speech, Stanikzai urged Afghans to unite to rebuild their war-ravaged country, saying trained and educated people also should come back to join the effort.

The Taliban seized control of the national capital on August 15, capping a weeklong military campaign that brought 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces under the group’s control in the face of a dramatic collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and its security forces.

The Islamist group is under pressure from the U.S. and neighboring countries to live up to public pledges that it would include all Afghans in the way it runs the country and would respect human rights to avoid Afghanistan’s international isolation.

The Taliban instructed female public health workers Friday to return to their regular duties, and they have allowed female television presenters to broadcast news as usual.

The governor of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, which is known as the Taliban’s birthplace, earlier in the week told a gathering of Islamic clerics that men would not be forced to grow beards and people would not be forced to stop listening to music.

Critics have doubts

Domestic and foreign critics, however, remain skeptical about whether the Islamist group will deliver on its pledges.

“I think I should be really clear here: There’s no rush to recognition of any sort by the United States or any international partners we have talked to,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday when asked if the Taliban were asking Washington for recognition.

Taliban Agreement to Let Afghans Leave Is ‘Positive,’ US Says | Voice of America - English (voanews.com) 

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