RAMSTEIN – United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed yesterday to press the Taliban to start charter flights out of Afghanistan after criticism that the Western administration is not doing enough to allow evacuations.
“Let me be very clear – those flights need to be able to leave,” Blinken told reporters on a visit to Germany.
“We are working to do everything in our power to support those flights and to get them off the ground,” Blinken said.
Blinken said the Taliban are preventing flights from leaving because some passengers lack travel documents.
State Department officials previously indicated that the Taliban had otherwise been cooperative, infuriating rival Republicans and activists who say they are struggling to get people out following the US military withdrawal.
“They claim that some of the passengers do not have the required documentation. Well, there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place,” Blinken said.
The US says only 100 or so of its citizens remain in Afghanistan, but that thousands of Afghan allies who fear retribution failed to leave before the departure of the US military. – AFP, September 9, 2021
