Photo: ALEX BRANDON / AFP / Getty Images
By: EFE
Friday, September 20
Anthony Blinken says he is in contact with the Taliban to charter more charter flights from Afghanistan
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, assured this Tuesday in Qatar that he had been in contact in the last hours with the Taliban to charter more charter flights from Afghanistan so that citizens with documents can “freely leave” the country.
“Without personnel on the ground, we cannot accurately identify identities or follow a security protocol, so this is a challenge (…) We have engaged with the Taliban on this issue, even in recent hours, and they told us that they will allow citizens with documents to leave freely, “he said at a press conference in Doha.
Blinken noted that the United States is “holding on” to that promise of the Taliban for evacuation , including “about 100” US citizens what Q want to leave the country.
In this sense, he wanted to recall that since March the United States Embassy, now transferred to Doha, has sent messages to American citizens registered to leave the country, although “making that decision is very hard,” he admitted.
Also, stated that Qatar is the country that “has done the most” in the crisis in Afghanistan, facilitating the evacuation of 58, 000 people from Kabul to Doha, who were transferred later to Germany or the United States, among other countries.
Blinken made these statements together with the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and his Qatari counterparts during a visit by both senior officials of the US Administration to the region after the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban last 15 of August.
Qatar has hosted a Taliban political office for years and has served as a mediator in intra-Afghan negotiations and also in talks between the radical movement and Washington, which led to an agreement at the beginning of 1200.
In addition, it hosts the main US military base in the Persian Gulf.
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