“We'll take you home,” Joe Biden promised all Americans who are still stuck in Afghanistan in the White House on Friday. Every citizen who wants to go home will be able to leave the country, the president assured. At the same time, he admitted that you were on an extremely dangerous mission and added, "I can't promise what the end result will be." Biden spoke to reporters for half an hour after canceling a planned weekend trip . While pictures of desperate crowds at Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul go around the world, he tried to spread confidence and give the impression of an orderly process. Biden said that the only country that can organize such a "powerful" evacuation operation as is currently going on in Kabul,be the United States. It is an unprecedented effort that is carried out with "precision".
The fact that the flights from the country were last suspended for more than eight hours was due to a backlog of thousands of people on the American military base in Qatar, he said.
Now bases are to be opened in other countries.
Since August 14, the Americans have taken more than 13,000 people out of the country - including Afghan aid workers and people who are in particular danger from the Taliban.
According to NATO, the evacuations of all countries to date have allowed a total of 18,000 people to leave the country.
First the work, then the criticism
Biden reacted again to inquiries about the timing and planning of the withdrawal. There will be enough time later to criticize his decisions and the approach, he said. Now it's about "getting the job done". It was made clear to the Taliban that "any attack on our troops or blockade of our operation will result in an immediate and powerful reaction," said Biden. However, the president also confirmed that his administration did not know how many Americans were still in Afghanistan. Citizens abroad should register, but many do not indicate when they leave a country again. Biden assured them that they were working on determining the exact number of Americans in Afghanistan. The American soldiers would stay in the country until all citizens were evacuated.
"As far as we know, the Taliban let all people at the checkpoints into the airport who show an American passport," said the President of the situation in Kabul. It is different with people who do not have such a passport and who enter the chaotic crowd in front of the airport. When asked what he had to say to Afghan Allied aid workers, Biden said, “We want you to be able to come to the airport. Get in touch and we will do our best to get you there. We have to get you out of there. ”They will“ use every opportunity ”to continue the evacuations. The fact that all embassy staff could have left the country is due to the negotiations with the Taliban. The negotiations continued and they were in "constant contact" with the Islamists.