Biden admits that American soldiers may stay in Kabul longer: Third evacuation special lands in the Czech Republic – Topky

U.S. leaders say they are adhering to August 31 as the deadline for their last troops to leave Afghanistan, leaving power to the victorious Islamist movement Taliban. However, for the first time, Biden suggested that US troops could stay there longer if some Americans were still trying to flee the country. “If there are still American citizens, we will stay to get them all away,” said Biden. The president further warned that the “chaos” that accompanies the panicked departure of foreigners and Afghan allies from Kabul is inevitable. “I can’t imagine a way to get out of there without chaos,” he said.

Source: SITA / AP Photo / Evan Vucci

The Taliban are currently standing sideways and are not obstructing US troops arriving at Kabul International Airport to help evacuate. However, militants have complete control over the rest of the city and decide who gets there, while foreign forces have a very limited ability to maneuver safely outside the airport.

In an interview with ABC News, Biden added that the Taliban are helping American forces to expel foreign nationals. “They work together, letting American citizens go, as well as embassy staff,” said the White House chief, saying that only Afghans who worked for the Allies were a problem. At the same time, the president rejected criticism that the US secret services had made a mistake in connection with the fall of Afghanistan. “It was an easy choice.” declared the head of the White House. In his own words, he is convinced that the planned departure of the US military must continue despite the surrender of the Western-backed Afghan government.

The third evacuation special from Kabul landed at the Prague-Kbely military airport

The third evacuation flight of the Czech army from the Afghan capital Kabul landed on Wednesday evening at the military airport in Prague-Kbely. According to the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic Lubomír Metnar, there were 62 passengers on board. The flight made a stopover in Baku, Azerbaijan, where it refueled. There were also Afghan interpreters with children on board, holders of permanent residence in the Czech Republic, as well as four Afghans whose transport was requested by Slovakia. The evacuation was coordinated by the crisis staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic with the Czech army, Metnar said according to the ČT24 news station.

Several Afghan families or people with ties to the Czech Republic remained at Kabul Airport, said Miroslava Pašková from the Vlčí máky association. According to her, other people are trying to get to the airport. The association called on the government to carry out another evacuation flight. “The people we need to evacuate to the Czech Republic remain in Afghanistan. They are primarily collaborators of the Czech Army, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their young children who have not yet reached the first two specials.” Eva Davidová, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Diplomacy, approached before the departure of the special from Kabul.

Source: SITA / 1st Lt. Mark Andries / US Marine Corps via AP

According to her, there are still other people on the spot who have a permanent residence in the Czech Republic, she added. The previous evacuation plane of the Czech army landed in Prague-Kbely on Tuesday evening. There were 87 passengers on board. Among them were the Czechs, including the Czech Ambassador Jiří Baloun, the Afghans and two Poles. Already on Monday, the first evacuation plane landed in the Czech Republic, bringing 46 people. Pavel Fischer, Chairman of the Senate Security Committee, praised the sending of the third machine. “Given the size of our country, the confusion surrounding planning, and the extremely difficult situation in Kabul itself, the third journey in such a record short time is an admirable performance.” wrote on Twitter.

The Afghan people are quarantined in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, like other member states of the anti-Tibetan coalition, is trying to evacuate its employees and local collaborators from Kabul. The countries accelerated their efforts after the radical Islamist Taliban movement seized Kabul. Evacuated Afghans are waiting in the Czech Republic for ten days of quarantine. “During this time, we will process their residence permits,” said the Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic Jan Hamáček on Tuesday. This will be followed by individual interviews with evacuees about their future

According to the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, it is possible that they will choose the path to the families they have in France or elsewhere in Europe. According to the prime minister, Afghans will obtain visas and will also be vaccinated during quarantine. All will be accommodated in one place in the first days. Czech soldiers have been operating in Afghanistan since 2002, and since then they have been replaced by 11,500, some repeatedly. According to the Ministry of Defense, the expenditure on Afghan missions from 2002 to 2020 amounted to approximately 20 billion crowns.

Source: SITA / AP Photo / Rahmat Gul

Austria has proposed the establishment of deportation centers in Central Asia

The European Union is increasingly occupied with the topic of a possible stream of people desperately trying to get out of Afghanistan controlled by the radical Taliban movement. On Wednesday, Austria called for aid to be provided on the ground to help Afghan refugees and for deportation centers to be set up in Central Asia. The information was provided by the DPA and AP news agencies. Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban over the past weekend, following the withdrawal of NATO troops. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), numerous human rights organizations and some European Union politicians have emphasized the need to protect the more vulnerable who are trying to escape the Islamist movement.

The EU is trying to avoid a repeat of the situation of 2015 and 2016, when hundreds of thousands of people, many from war-torn Syria, made a dangerous journey to the EU to find protection there. “The goal must be one thing: to keep the majority of people in the region,” Conservative Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said before video interviews with his EU colleagues. German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke similarly earlier this week. French President Emmanul Macron warned on Monday that the destabilization of Afghanistan could trigger uncontrollable waves of refugees flowing into Europe. Nehammer said the EU must arm itself against possible illegal immigration by working even harder to strengthen its external borders.

Source: SITA / Sgt. Isaiah Campbell / US Marine Corps via AP

Austria already cares for the second largest Afghan community in the EU in relation to its own population – it has 44,000 Afghans on its territory, the minister specified. On Wednesday, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson called on Member States to step up their efforts to relocate vulnerable Afghans and offer the most vulnerable new, legal ways to gain protection in the EU – especially women and children. “We should prevent people from traveling to the EU on dangerous, illegal and uncontrolled smuggling routes,” Johansson told the interior minister in talks.

It is not safe to send people back to Afghanistan

“It is not possible to send people (from the EU) back to Afghanistan these days. It is not safe. But it is important that we help people in Afghanistan – if possible – to return to their homes. We can also help neighboring countries support for Afghan refugees, ” added the European Commissioner. Following a video conference of EU interior ministers, she said that “Europe should not wait until people are at our external borders. We must help before then. It is also important that we help those who are at immediate risk and relocate them to EU Member States. “.

Many EU countries agreed last week to stop the deportation of people to Afghanistan, despite the Taliban’s rapid conquest of territory throughout the country in recent months. Nehammer said Sunday – the day the Taliban conquered the Afghan capital Kabul – that Austria would continue to deport unsuccessful asylum seekers “for as long as possible.” The Taliban ruled Afghanistan for five years, imposing severe punishments and severe restrictions on women. In 2001, during the invasion, he was overthrown by the United States and the NATO mission began. Many Afghans fear the return of the regime or, in some cases, the retaliation of the Taliban for cooperating with foreign forces that have recently withdrawn from the country. According to the United Nations, some 3.5 million people are already internally displaced, with millions of Afghans hosting neighboring Pakistan, Iran and nearby Turkey.

Source: SITA / 1st Lt. Mark Andries / US Marine Corps

There was no indication that Afghanistan would fall so quickly, according to the American general

US Chief and Chief of Staff Mark Milley on Wednesday defended the US military’s response to the fundamentally rapid takeover of power in Afghanistan by the fundamentalist Taliban movement, arguing that no one expected such a rapid fall from US-trained Afghan forces. The AFP news agency informed about it. “Nothing I or anyone else would see indicated that this army and government would fall in 11 days. The Afghan security forces had the capacity, and I mean, they had the training, size, and ability to defend their country. about the problem of will and leadership, “ Milley said on the current situation in Afghanistan.

Source: SITA / AP Photo / Alex Brandon

The U.S. military and US President Joe Biden’s administration are facing domestic political attacks over the Taliban’s defeat by Afghan forces with minimal fighting effort, as well as last week’s fall in the US-backed government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country. The development of the situation in Afghanistan surprised the US government and launched a rapid evacuation of Americans and Afghans, who received special visas for their work for American forces. About 5,000 US troops have arrived at Kabul International Airport since Saturday to help thousands of people suddenly leave Afghanistan.

Source: SITA / AP Photo

Critics accuse the State Department, the Secret Service and the Pentagon of failing to anticipate the debacle and prepare for the evacuation of more than 10,000 U.S. citizens. Former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) counter-terrorism division for South Asia and later Adviser Biden, Douglas London said during his election campaign, the US secret services predicted that the Taliban would defeat Afghan forces and the government capitulated within days. These estimates were “emphasized” last year by US former Donald Trump officials as well as Biden’s future officials, according to AFP Douglas London.