ROME (Sputnik) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Tuesday that his government would seek to evacuate Italians and Afghan allies by the end of this month.
The premier said it was necessary to "maintain a contact channel even after the August 31 deadline" and guarantee safe transit through Afghanistan, his cabinet quoted him as saying at the G7 virtual summit.
"Furthermore, we must ensure right from the start that international organizations have access to Afghanistan after the deadline," Draghi said.
Italy will use resources it set aside for Afghan security forces to send humanitarian aid to those in need, he said.
The Italian premier urged G7 countries to seek the help of G20 members who can influence the situation on the ground, including Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and India.
LONDON (Sputnik) - The evacuation from Afghanistan will continue as long as the security situation allows, the exact date of the end of the evacuation flights from Afghanistan has not yet been set, the UK Ministry of Defense said.
According to the ministry, more than 1,000 UK troops are currently stationed in Kabul. Since August 13, as part of Operation Pitting, 9,226 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan.
This number includes embassy staff, UK citizens, persons eligible to participate in the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), and a number of citizens from partner countries, it said.
It is added that as part of Operation Pitting, the UK has evacuated more than 5,500 Afghans and their family members under the ARAP program.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has evacuated about 4,000 US passport holders and their families from Afghanistan, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said on Tuesday.
"As of today, August 24, we have evacuated approximately 4,000 American passport holders plus their families. We expect that number to continue to grow in the coming days," Kirby said at a briefing.
WASHINGTON, (Sputnik) - The US military has started withdrawing its forces and reducing its presence on the ground in Afghanistan, Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson said in a tweet, citing US officials.
"The US military has started withdrawing from Afghanistan reducing troop presence: US officials," Tomlinson said.
President Joe Biden needs to abandon the August 31 goal of completing the United States' exit from Afghanistan and instead extend the US-controlled perimeter beyond Kabul and the capital’s international airport so all Americans and Afghans who cooperated with the US forces can safely leave, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday.
“The president needs to forget about the August 31st deadline. We need to send in enough military personnel to rescue our people… extend the deadline, get outside the perimeter make sure that every single American who wants to leave is able to get out with our assistance and our Afghan allies,” McConnell told Fox News.
McConnell called Biden’s decision to rapidly end the US military presence in Afghanistan one of the greatest foreign policy disasters in US history.
Before the US withdrawal began it had 2,500 service members in Afghanistan.
“We hadn’t lost a single American military personal in a year. Taliban barbarians were not in charge of the country. We were keeping the lid on al Qaeda,” he said.
The United States has told the Taliban that the August 31 withdrawal deadline depends on the cooperation of the Taliban (banned in Russia), according to media reports. In addition, the Biden administration reportedly asked the Pentagon for contingency plans to stay longer if necessary.
A delegation of the Taliban movement (banned in Russia as a terrorist group) headed to negotiations in Panjshir on Tuesday, it is expected that the province, which resisted the movement, will surrender without a fight, a Taliban source told Sputnik.
The source noted that the Taliban delegation went to talks with the leader of the local resistance, Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the anti-Taliban "Northern Alliance," who was killed by terrorists 20 years ago.
"A Taliban delegation ... arrived in Panjshir this morning. Panjshir is expected to surrender without a fight as a result of negotiations," the source said.
Afghan evacuees undergo a thorough vetting process conducted by US intelligence and counterterrorism officials before they are allowed into the United States, a senior Biden administration official said on Tuesday.
"These individuals are being flown to third-party countries in Europe and Asia that have agreed to serve as transit hubs before these individuals undergo robust security processing and fly onward to the United States," the official said during a conference call with reporters. "That process involves biometric and biographic security screenings conducted by our intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals."
Afghan refugees undergo a medical screening when they arrive to the United States, including a coronavirus test, the official said. The Biden administration is also working on plans to possibly offer Afghan refugees coronavirus vaccines, the official added.
The official also said it is possible the Defense Department may increase the number of military installations housing Afghan refugees in the United States. To date, Afghan refugees are being housed at Fort McCoy, Fort Lee, Fort Bliss and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby said in earlier remarks that the Defense Department could evacuate about 100,000 individuals from Afghanistan by the end of the week. Some 21,600 people were evacuated from Kabul in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of evacuees to 58,700 since August 14.
The Taliban (banned in Russia as a terrorist group) appointed Abdul Qayyum Zakir — a former detainee in Guantanamo Bay camp —acting defense minister, Al Jazeera broadcaster reported Tuesday citng a source from the movement.
Zakir was released from Cuba-based Guantanamo camp in 2007.
The US military could evacuate approximately 100,000 people from Afghanistan by the end of the week if they are able to maintain the pace of the last several days, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“That’s definitely the plan,” Kirby said in response to a question about whether the Defense Department believes it can continue evacuating about 20,000 people a day, totaling roughly 100,000 possible evacuees by the end of the week.
Kirby added that the throughput is a function of many factors including weather, but that the Defense Department plans on continuing this pace as aggressively as it can. Over 21,000 individuals have been evacuated from Afghanistan in the last 24 hours.
The Russian President also said that some countries may attempt to escalate conflict in Afghanistan on territory of neigbouring states and this is a threat for Russia.
There has been no change to the US evacuation mission timeline in Afghanistan which is set to end by August 31, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday.
“There’s been no change to the timeline of the mission, which is to have this completed by the end of the month,” Kirby said at a press briefing.
The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries are planning to discuss the possible recognition of the Taliban (banned in Russia as a designated terror group) government in Afghanistan, CNN reported on Tuesday.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the G7 meeting, is the main advocate for a unified approach to recognizing the Taliban, the report said. Johnson has said he seeks the leading democracies to make a plan to either recognize the Taliban government or to apply economic sanctions, it added.
The G7 meeting is planned to take place on Tuesday with the participation of the secretaries general of NATO and the United Nations.
Banks across Afghanistan will reopen on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Taliban (terrorist group, banned in Russia), which currently hold the reins of power in the country, told a local news outlet.
"Banks will reopen tomorrow," Zabihullah Mujahid was quoted by the Afghan 1TV News channel as saying during a press conference on Tuesday.
The announcement came a day after the Taliban named Haji Mohammad Idris as acting governor of Afghanistan central bank and tasked him with "organizing government institutions and banking issues."
The impoverished nation’s Kabul-based financial system was plunged into chaos after Islamist militants captured the capital more than a week ago.
Mohammad Yakub, the deputy leader of the Taliban movement (banned in Russia) said on Tuesday that the movement is not ruling out armed hostilities against resistance forces in the Panjshir province of Afghanistan, the 1TV News broadcaster reported.
Yakub said that armed conflict may start if negotiations fail, according to 1TV News.
Afghan minister now delivering pizza in #Germany
— EHA News (@eha_news) August 22, 2021
▪️#Afghanistan's former communications minister Sayed Ahmad Shah Saadat is now a driver for the Lieferando delivery service in Leipzig. pic.twitter.com/4SpQPHGrZm
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the situation in Afghanistan during a phone conversation on 24 August, the Kremlin said.
"President of Russia Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. During the exchange of views on the situation in Afghanistan, the sides noted the importance of coordinated efforts contributing to the establishment of peace and stability in this country, ensuring security in the region as a whole," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin and Modi also expressed readiness to boost cooperation in the fight against the "spread of terrorist ideology and drug threat emanating from Afghan territory".
"It was agreed to form a bilateral channel of permanent consultations on this issue," the Kremlin added.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The World Health Organisation (WHO)'s health supplies in Afghanistan are only sufficient for one week, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Ahmed Al-Mandhari said on 24 August.
"[The] WHO now only has enough supplies in the country to last for one week. Yesterday, 70% of these supplies were released to health facilities", Al-Mandhari told a press briefing.
The official added that the WHO had 500 metric tonnes of supplies earmarked for Afghanistan currently sitting in a warehouse in Dubai, but said the current situation at the Kabul Airport was making transporting these vital goods impossible at this stage.
KABUL (Sputnik) - Afghanistan will be led by a 12-member council, and the seven candidates that have been already agreed on include ex-Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the High Council for National Reconciliation chief Abdullah Abdullah and Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban (banned as a terrorist organisation in Russia), a source close to senior Taliban circles told Sputnik on 24 August.
"Afghanistan would be governed by a 12-member council, with the exception of the president and the emirate. So far, the council has agreed on Abdul Ghani Baradar, [son of Taliban founder] Mullah Yaqub, [high-ranking member of the Haqqani network terrorist group] Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai, [ex-Afghan Interior Minister] Hanif Atmar and [the leader of the Party of Islam] Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," the source said.
Talks are underway to appoint the remaining five members of the council, Afghan National Army Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum and ex-Balkh province governor Atta Mohammad Noor may not join the council, the source added.
To make this happen, we are working closely with https://t.co/enqjlQB0rH, NGOs, and partners orgs on the ground to support the most pressing needs.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) August 24, 2021
