{"id":10867,"date":"2021-08-18T12:11:57","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T04:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=10867"},"modified":"2021-08-18T12:11:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T04:11:59","slug":"us-says-taliban-gave-safe-passage-assurances-for-kabul-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=10867","title":{"rendered":"US says Taliban gave safe passage assurances for Kabul airport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 — The Taliban has assured the United States that it will not impede safe travel of Afghans and Americans seeking to flee to Hamid Karzai International Airport, Anadolu Agency (AA) quoted a top Biden administration official on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Sullivan, US President Joe Biden\u2019s national security advisor, said the Taliban informed the administration \u201cthat they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan noted reports of individuals being turned away and beaten at Taliban checkpoints, saying the administration is raising those cases directly with them \u201cto try and resolve those issues, and we are concerned about whether that will continue to unfold in the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said \u201cby and large\u201d people have been able to reach the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"airport\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we are finding is that we are getting people through the gate, we are getting them lined up, and we are getting them on planes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden warned the Taliban that “devastating” force will be used if the hardline group attacks American personnel, or seeks to interfere with ongoing evacuation operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US military resumed flights into and out of the airport late Monday after chaotic scenes showed people desperate to flee the group swarming the tarmac as military planes took off with several people appearing in bystander video footage to fall from at least one aircraft mid-take off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed earlier on Tuesday that US military commanders on-site at the airport are in communication directly with Taliban commanders “on the ground outside the airport.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether the US would recognise an Afghan government headed by the Taliban, Sullivan said answering the question right now would be \u201cpremature\u201d as a government has yet to be formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now there is a chaotic situation in Kabul where we don\u2019t even have the establishment of a governing authority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately it is up to the Taliban to show the rest of the world who they are, and how they intend to proceed. The track record has not been good, but it\u2019s premature to address that question at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war between the Taliban and Afghan forces intensified as foreign troops announced their withdrawal from the country by Sept 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that led to the US invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Taliban made rapid military advances in recent weeks and took control of the capital on Sunday as Afghan government forces fled or surrendered. Former President Ashraf Ghani also left the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Aug 18 — The Taliban has assured the United States that it will not impede…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","newsium-slider-full":"","newsium-featured":"","newsium-medium":""},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10869,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867\/revisions\/10869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}