Afghanistan NATO talks about the slowness of the evacuation to avoid conflict

Afghanistan NATO talks about the slowness of the evacuation to avoid conflict, and the Taliban deny accusations of preventing the departure of Afghans

NATO official as saying that the evacuation of foreigners and Afghan collaborators is taking place at a slow pace, while the Taliban denied preventing the Afghans from leaving.

The NATO official said that about 12,000 foreigners and Afghans working for embassies and international aid groups have been evacuated from Afghanistan since Taliban fighters entered the capital, Kabul.

"The evacuation process is slow because it is risky because we don't want any form of clashes with Taliban members or civilians outside the airport," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

At least 12 people have died in and around the airport since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said, as the heavily armed Taliban around it urged those without travel documents to return home.

For his part, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby expressed concern over reports that US citizens were beaten by Taliban militants while trying to reach Kabul airport.

He pointed out that the US forces told the movement that this is not acceptable at all.

The Associated Press quoted a US official as saying that US helicopters transported 96 Afghans to Kabul airport for evacuation.

In turn, Reuters quoted a Taliban official, who denied that Afghans were prevented from leaving the country through the airport, adding that the movement only removes those who do not have legal travel papers, but they are adding chaos at the airport gate. The vicinity of the airport in the Afghan capital witnessed shooting to disperse hundreds of Afghans trying to enter the airport in an attempt to leave the country.

And the US administration announced, on Friday, that the evacuees will be sent from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the United States, via connecting flights from several countries, including Turkey, England, Germany, Italy and the United Arab Emirates.

This came in the words of Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price, who said that Turkey, England, Germany, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will contribute to the flights of passengers who will be evacuated from Afghanistan.

Reuters news agency quoted US officials denying that any plane had taken off on evacuation flights from Kabul over a period of a few hours yesterday, Friday, due to the lack of a place to go, after the increase in the flow at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and its reaching its maximum capacity, as it hosts 8,000 passengers. Afghan evacuees.

Canada Show

In this context, Canadian Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said Friday that his country is considering accepting additional Afghan refugees on behalf of the United States or other allies if requested to do so.

"We must keep the door open to all possibilities," Mendicino added in an interview.

"If there are Afghans who assisted coalition partners during the mission and also met the criteria for our humanitarian resettlement programme, then I think we should be prepared to consider such an arrangement," he said.

Canada withdrew the bulk of its forces from Afghanistan in 2011, but took part in a NATO mission to train the Afghan army until 2014.

'The hardest evacuation'

In a speech to him from the White House yesterday, Friday, US President Joe Biden pledged to evacuate every American who wants to leave Afghanistan, and indicated that the United States has evacuated 13,000 from Afghanistan since August 14, and 18,000 since last July, as well as thousands On special trips organized by the US government.

Biden said, "This is one of the largest and most difficult air evacuations in history, and the only country in the world capable of that capacity in the farthest corner of the world with such accuracy is the United States of America."

"We will do everything we can and everything we can to provide the safe evacuation of our Afghan allies and partners, and those Afghans who might be targeted because of their association with the United States," he added.

Biden said that US officials are in constant contact with the Taliban, and warned them that any attack on his country's forces or disruption of their operations at the airport "will be met with a swift and strong response."

According to NATO, foreign countries have evacuated a total of more than 18,000 since the Taliban took control of Kabul last Sunday.