Tension in Kabul: the Taliban await the evacuation of the American embassy in Afghanistan to enter the capital

The Taliban announced on Sunday that they were continuing have not taken a final decision on their entry into the Afghan capital, Kabul, the day the evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from the city began.

To the fighters who remain at the gates of the city, they were ordered to wait and not to enter, said an insurgent spokesman after the total collapse of the country’s security forces. “The Islamic Emirate orders all its forces to remain at the gates of Kabul, not to attempt to enter the city “Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban, tweeted.

The order arrived when residents said they saw insurgents enter some suburbs peacefully exterior of the Afghan capital.

“There are armed Taliban fighters in our neighborhood, but there is no fighting,” a resident of an eastern suburb of Kabul told AFP.

“We will make our decision on Kabul later and separately,” spokesman Mujahid said, after official US sources on condition of anonymity informed the ‘New York Times’ What U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has called on the Taliban not to enter the capital until evacuations from the U.S. diplomatic headquarters are completed.

Khalilzad, according to sources in the middle, hopes to convince Taliban leaders that the embassy must remain open and secure whether the group expects to receive financial aid from the United States and other aid under a future Afghan government.

“People must be clear that we do not want a state of war in Kabul Or, God forbid, no one gets hurt, ”the Taliban spokesman said.

For its part, Russia has indicated it has no plans to evacuate its embassy in the city, the foreign ministry official told Interfax news agency. Zamir Kabulov indicated that he is “in direct contact” with the Moscow ambassador in the capital and that the employees of the delegation continue to work “calmly” and “no evacuation is planned”.

The minister also said that Russia was one of the countries that had received assurances from the Taliban that their embassies would be safe. “We received these guarantees a long time ago. It was not just about Russia, ”he added.

The announcement of the arrival in Kabul This happened hours after the Taliban captured the key eastern city of Jalalabad and the northern anti-Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif, thus defeating Afghan government forces in just 10 days.

Pro-Taliban social media accounts boasted that their fighters were moving quickly to the outskirts of Kabul province, very close to the outskirts of the city.

Insurgents control virtually the entire country, after 10 days of accelerated conquests against government forces and local leaders.

News in development …

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