Even if he intends to stick to his schedule, Joe Biden seems to be opening the door to an additional deadline for the presence of his army in Afghanistan.
The US president explained on Sunday that he still hoped that the evacuation operations in Kabul could be completed before August 31, the date that had been set by his government for the complete withdrawal of American troops from the country.
"We hope that we will not have to prolong", he declared while adding: "there will be discussions, I think".
"We'll see what we can do," he also answered a question from a journalist asking what he would do if allied countries demanded that the United States stay there longer.
"Difficult and painful" evacuations
The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell had judged Saturday "impossible" to evacuate all the Afghan collaborators of the Western powers before August 31.
Several human rights organizations have also called on Joe Biden to extend the deadline for the US withdrawal.
Some 28,000 people have been evacuated since August 14, the White House tenant said on Sunday.
"It's an incredible operation," he said.
"We are working hard and as quickly as possible to evacuate people", he added, assuring that these evacuations would have been "difficult and painful" even if they had been started "a month ago".
A week after the Taliban took power, thousands of people were still trying to flee the country on Sunday, and chaos still reigned at Kabul airport.
"We have made a number of changes, including expanding access around the airport and the security zone," Joe Biden said without giving further details.
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