CIA director meets with Taliban leader as evacuation escalates

This is the highest level meeting to date between the United States and the fundamentalist regime since its return to power just over a week ago.

President Biden’s decision to send Burns, often touted as his most experienced diplomat, to Afghanistan illustrates the gravity of the crisis for his administration, which is evacuating thousands of Americans and Afghans against time.

Mullah Baradar, who headed the Taliban political bureau in Qatar, is the new strongman of the regime that has seized power in Kabul.

The Washington Post did not disclose the content of the conversations, but it is likely that they revolved around delayed evacuations from the airport of the Afghan capital, where thousands of people terrorized by the return to power of the Islamists wait to board a plane to leave the country.

On Monday, the Taliban warned that they would only allow such operations to continue for one more week, a period considered insufficient by several Western countries, and conditioned the establishment of a national unity government. the absence of American soldiers in Afghanistan.

This Tuesday, during a virtual summit of the G7 dedicated to chaos in this country, the UK, who currently chairs the group, and other allies will press the United States to the need to extend the August 31 deadline.

Biden wants to keep the due dateBut he is also put under pressure by scenes of desperation at Kabul airport. The images of mothers handing over their children to foreign soldiers on barbed wire have shocked the world.

Ahead of the summit, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said Washington was “unlikely” to accept. But “it’s surely worth a try and we’ll do it,” he told Sky News.

In the words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Heiko Maas, the deadline of August 31 “will not be enough” to evacuate “all those who want to make them leave”.

“The situation is frankly dramatic and also each passing day is worse, because people are aware that the deadlines are running out,” added the Minister of Defense of Spain, Margarita Robles, on Cadena Ser radio.

France He announced for his part that if the United States withdraws all its troops on schedule, French soldiers will have to end the evacuations on Thursday, according to a senior foreign ministry official.

“If the United States or the United Kingdom ask for more time to continue the evacuations, the answer is no. There will be consequences,” warned Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, for whom the presence beyond of the agreed period would be “to extend the occupation”. “

Until, some 50,000 people have been evacuated from the country from Kabul airport since August 14, most of them on US military flights, according to figures from Washington. On Monday alone, 16,000 people left Kabul on flights from various countries, the Pentagon reported.

Citizens who have worked for governments or foreign companies in recent years, artists or those who have defended the openness of the country and the rights of women or minorities, know that they are the targets of extremists.

On Monday, an Afghan guard was killed and three others were injured in gunfire at the airport. In addition, around ten people died in unclear circumstances during these evacuation operations.