U.S., Qatar call on Taliban to facilitate evacuations from Afghanistan

Doha, Qatar | Xinhua | The United States and Qatar on Tuesday urged the Afghan Taliban to live up to their commitment to facilitate the evacuations from Afghanistan.

This appeal came during a joint press conference held in Doha by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid Al-Attiyah.

“We’ve been engaged with the Taliban, including in recent hours. They’ve said that they will let people with travel documents freely depart,” said Blinken.

“The international community is watching to see if the Taliban will live up to their commitments,” he added.

Blinken also expressed his country’s thanks to Qatar for its assistance to the U.S. evacuation operations in Afghanistan.

For his part, the Qatari foreign minister said that the developments in the security and humanitarian situations in Afghanistan was a focus of the meetings between the U.S. and Jordanian officials, adding that the ministers stressed the importance of continuing to open humanitarian pathways.

Regarding the Kabul Airport, Sheikh Mohammed said that no agreement had been reached with the Taliban on the management and operation of the airport.

However, there are daily chartered flights to receive aid from other countries to keep the humanitarian pathway open, and Qatar has facilitated the flights for UN officials to reach understandings with the Taliban not to hinder their operations.

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Xinhua