On Tuesday the G7 will meet for a crisis summit over Afghanistan.
Biden apparently wants to make a decision on the possible extension of the withdrawal time as soon as possible.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) expects that Germany will have to leave people to be escaped in Afghanistan.
(
Update from 11.15 a.m.
)
Meanwhile, the situation in the country is coming to a head.
Apparently, the Taliban no longer want Afghans to be flown out and have spoken again.
(
Update from 6.15 p.m.
)
The G7 countries discussed an extension of the deadline for evacuation flights on Tuesday and made a decision in the evening.
(Update from 7:30 p.m.)
This news ticker on the situation in Afghanistan * is continuously updated.
Update from August 24th, 7:30 p.m.:
According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US President Joe Biden did not name a new time for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan * at the G7 summit.
“There are no new data today about the known date of August 31.
(out) been named by the President of the United States of America, ”said Merkel on Tuesday in Berlin.
Following the crisis summit, the EU again asked the US president to be flexible on the issue of leaving the airport in Kabul.
There is a need to secure the airport for as long as necessary to complete the evacuation mission, said EU Council President Charles Michel.
In addition, there must be “fair and equitable access” to the airport for all people who have a right to be brought to safety.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson * called on the Taliban to grant safe conduct to those wishing to leave Afghanistan even after the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan.
G7 summit on Afghanistan: Taliban threaten with "consequences" - will Biden give in?
Update from August 24th, 6.15pm:
While the heads of state and government of the G7 states are discussing the extension of evacuation flights from Kabul beyond August 31st at a virtual crisis meeting, the Taliban are increasing the pressure on the Western military alliance. The militant Islamist Taliban insist that the rescue mission of western states from Afghanistan be completed by the end of the month.
"We want all foreigners to be evacuated by August 31," said Taliban spokesman Sabiullah Mujahid on Tuesday in his second press conference since the Islamists came to power.
The spokesman also opposed the fact that many educated Afghans and skilled workers were leaving the country.
You need this to rebuild Afghanistan.
However, the Mujahid did not issue threats in the event that the US or other countries did not complete their evacuations by the end of August.
Shock for people in Kabul: Taliban want to detain Afghans - Merkel is now giving in to local staff
Update from August 24, 4:43 p.m.:
After strong criticism of its admission regulations for local staff, Angela Merkel's federal government gives in: According to a media report, it is also expanding the claims of former Afghan local staff from the Ministry of Development and the Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) from Afghanistan upon an application for evacuation. "In principle, it was decided that from now on, local development cooperation workers who were employed more than two years ago would also be eligible for an exit because they were at risk," a ministry spokesman told Die
Welt
on Tuesday
. However, this reaction could come too late (
see previous updates
).
Taliban want to detain Afghans - Islamists are threatening "consequences" with prolonged evacuations
Update from August 24, 4:35 p.m.:
The situation for people
who want to flee
in Afghanistan is coming to a head: The Taliban apparently want to prevent Afghan citizens from leaving.
At the same time, under threat of "consequences", they are pushing for an end to the flights by August 31 at the latest.
The Taliban have now asked the US armed forces not to fly any further Afghan specialists out of the country for their rescue missions. "We call on them to stop this," Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Mujahid told journalists in Kabul on Tuesday. He was referring to Afghan experts such as engineers. Only foreigners are allowed to be flown out of Kabul by the western forces. Mujahid also reiterated the Islamists' warning that evacuation flights from Kabul would no longer be allowed after August 31.
A decision by the USA on how to proceed is likely to be made today.
The news channel CNN reported that the US Department of Defense had asked US President Joe Biden to make a decision on Tuesday whether the deployment should be extended.
The background to this is that once the evacuations have been completed, the 5,800 US soldiers deployed at Kabul airport must also be flown out with their equipment.
After the G7 deliberations, Biden wants to appear in front of the press around 6 p.m.
Afghanistan: Panic at Kabul Airport - evacuations could end “anytime”
Update from August 24, 4.10 p.m.:
The final withdrawal of US soldiers from Afghanistan is getting closer - more and more dramatic scenes are taking place at Kabul airport: The three airport access gates have to be closed again and again due to the onslaught of desperate Afghans, the French reported Ambassador to Kabul, David Martinon. "It could be over at any time" with the evacuation flights, admitted a representative of France with a view to the international struggle to extend the rescue mission. The heads of state and government of the leading western industrial nations are currently discussing the situation in Afghanistan and probably also the date for the end of the evacuations via video link.
At the north gate of the airport there was a firefight on Monday with strangers with the participation of the Bundeswehr, in which an Afghan soldier was killed and three others injured.
The south gate collapsed as a result of a mass panic and has now been replaced by armored containers, Martinon said at a video conference with France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Defense Minister Florence Parly.
The containers would "completely block access and force the British paratroopers to perform acrobatic feats in order to bring in the Afghans to be escaped," said the ambassador.
Outside the gates, thousands are waiting in unbearable heat to find their way through the crowd into one of the rescue planes.
Several people have already been crushed.
Afghanistan and the USA: CIA chief apparently meets with Taliban co-founder - issue of evacuation period?
Update from August 24th, 3:25 p.m.:
The head of the US foreign
intelligence
service CIA has apparently met a co-founder of the Taliban in Kabul.
The secret meeting between William Burns and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar took place on Monday, reports the
Washington Post.
The renowned journal relies on US sources.
A CIA spokesman did not want to confirm the report by the AFP news agency - the agency "never" gave information about the travels of its director.
If the information turns out to be true, it would be the highest-level meeting so far between a representative of the US government and the Taliban since the Islamists came to power in Afghanistan. The sources did not report what content the two should have talked about. According to the
Washington Post
, the meeting could have been about an extension of the deadline for the final US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. So far, US President Biden is sticking to the conclusion of the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31. Germany, among others, fears that not all those in need of protection can be flown out of Kabul by then.
The Bundeswehr currently also sees an increasing risk of attacks by IS terrorists in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.
You have signals from American sources, but also your own findings that increasingly potential suicide bombers of the terrorist organization Islamic State are "infiltrating the city," said Inspector General Eberhard Zorn on Monday in Berlin.
The Americans had already given evidence of this last week.
"That is increasing now."
Afghanistan: The Bundeswehr has flown 3,800 people out - local workers attacked Merkel
Update from August 24th, 1:15 p.m.:
According to Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD), the Bundeswehr has flown around 3800 people from Afghanistan via its airlift in the past few days, including 351 German citizens. However, the federal government must continue to listen to violent allegations - also because people to be fled from Germany will remain in the country (see previous update). The chairman of the sponsorship network for Afghan local forces in the Bundeswehr, Marcus Grotian, spoke of “failure to provide assistance” in a press conference that was at times emotional. Some of the Germans' helpers were “deliberately and knowingly left behind,” he complained. Dramatic scenes were still taking place in these minutes.
Meanwhile, the situation in Afghanistan is devastating for many people. After the militant Islamist Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, serious violations of human rights were reported from the crisis state. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, reported on this at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. According to these reports, there were mass executions of civilians and former members of the Afghan security forces.
Bachelet also said that women's freedom of movement had been restricted in some regions, and that some girls were no longer allowed to go to school.
Peaceful protests are suppressed and minors are brought to armed forces.
Afghanistan's diverse ethnic and religious minorities are also at risk of violence and oppression.
The reports are credible, she stressed.
However, armed resistance also appears to be forming in the Pandjir Valley in northeast Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Maas has bitter news for local staff - France observes evacuees close to the Taliban
Update from August 24, 11.15 a.m.:
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has admitted that Germany will not fully achieve its goals in the evacuation mission in Afghanistan.
More than 2,000 "men, women and children from Afghanistan" have been flown out and are in concrete contact with 100 other families, Maas said in the morning on TV station Bild.
However, the time window for the action is closing: "That will not be enough to get all those we want to fly out of the country during this time."
+
The federal government has misjudged the situation in Afghanistan, also admits Federal Foreign Minister Maas.
© Annegret Hilse / dpa
According to Maas, he expects a decision by the USA on the time to end the evacuation on Tuesday.
He is assuming that the Americans “need a day or two just to fly out their own military”, which means that the flight action could end before the final deadline - the Taliban had last insisted on an end on August 31.
Maas announced joint considerations with the USA and Great Britain on alternatives, such as civil flights from Kabul.
Germany wants to participate in the coordination of such an action.
However, you have to "talk to the Taliban".
Maas blocked further questions about a resignation.
He currently "wastes no thought" on his personal future.
However, the Foreign Minister also stated that he would "draw his conclusions" from the events.
Meanwhile, there are also reports of Afghan citizens flown to Europe who are under surveillance for alleged proximity to the Taliban - as in the case of five Afghans in France.
One of them was taken into police custody on Monday evening because he had not adhered to his residence conditions, said France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday morning the channel Franceinfo.
The man has "obviously a connection to the Taliban", but had helped the French army with the evacuation of compatriots and Afghans.
Afghanistan: Biden wants to decide quickly about an extension of the withdrawal - the Bundeswehr succeeds in the next rescue
First report:
Kabul - Afghanistan occupies world politics. The heads of state and government of the seven leading western industrial nations as well as representatives of the EU * are discussing the situation in the country at a special summit this Tuesday. The General Secretaries of NATO and the United Nations are also expected to take part. At the virtual meeting in the afternoon, the long-term development of the country should be on the program in addition to the evacuation mission, said the British government. It should also be about how the achievements of the past 20 years could be protected, especially with regard to the education of girls and the rights of women and minorities.
The question of whether the evacuations can continue beyond August 31 is likely to play a major role.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will chair the meeting, wants to campaign for an extension with US President Joe Biden *, according to government information from London.
Biden had not categorically ruled out a continuation of the evacuation mission, but at the same time made it very clear that he hoped it would not be necessary.
According to media reports, according to an insider, Biden wants to decide on an extension of the withdrawal time within 24 hours.
A government official told Reuters that Biden wanted to give the Pentagon time to prepare.
Evacuations in Afghanistan: Taliban do not want deadline extensions
The militant Islamist Taliban, on the other hand, have already spoken out clearly against an extension of the deadline. It is a "red line", said a spokesman for the British news channel Sky News on Monday. Postponing it would be tantamount to extending the military occupation of his country.
The US military currently has around 5,800 soldiers at the airport in Kabul. The evacuation recently gained momentum. From August 14 to Monday afternoon (Washington time), 48,000 people were flown out by the US military and troops from allied states, as the White House * said. Most of the evacuees are Afghans who once worked for US forces and their families. Thousands of them are to be accommodated at US bases in Germany and other European countries while their visa applications are being processed.
The Bundeswehr tweeted that another plane from Kabul landed in Tashkent on Tuesday night with 211 people in need of protection.
"Since the start of the operation, more than 3,650 people have been evacuated from Kabul by the German Armed Forces." However, numerous local staff * are still in Afghanistan.
Situation in Afghanistan: German government is holding talks with the USA, Turkey and the Taliban
Despite the negative attitude of the Taliban, the possibility of an extension of the evacuation mission should be an issue at the summit on Tuesday, affirmed a government spokesman in London. It is about speaking with one voice within the G7. British government members had already made it clear on Monday that the evacuation mission would not be feasible without the United States. Every minute now counts, said British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace. But there are “real problems” from the masses of people who do not meet the criteria for evacuation but want to leave the country.
The federal government tried to make evacuation flights possible for the time after the planned withdrawal of US troops.
Foreign minister Heiko Maas (SPD *) said on Monday that talks would be held with the USA, Turkey and the Taliban to ensure that the airport can continue to operate civilly for this purpose.
"We will have to and will continue to talk to the Taliban about this," said Maas.
After the withdrawal of the US troops, they will play a special role in the operation of the airport.
Currently, the situation at the airport is increasingly chaotic, the federal government does not recommend that people make their own way there, said Maas.
Support for refugees from Afghanistan - Röttgen fears far-reaching consequences for the relationship with the USA
In London it was said that Johnson would also call on the heads of state and government of the G7 to increase their support for refugees * and humanitarian aid, the statement from London said. Britain had announced that it would double its development aid for Afghanistan to £ 286 million (around € 334 million), but the budget had only recently been drastically cut. In addition to Great Britain and Germany, the G7 countries also include the USA, France, Italy, Canada and Japan.
The CDU politician Norbert Röttgen fears that the failure of the military operation in Afghanistan will have far-reaching consequences for relations with the USA. "It is a moral and a political failure," he told the German press agency before the virtual G7 summit. At the last meeting of the group in June it was actually planned that the democracies would stand together more closely and unite against the authoritarian states. Instead, in addition to the Taliban, China and Russia in particular benefited from the withdrawal from Afghanistan. "With a few months' delay, Joe Biden implemented Donald Trump's policy on this point *. He even adopted its language when he said: We have no interests in Afghanistan, ”said the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag.
Röttgen hopes that the USA will now at least cooperate with the alliance partners on the evacuation. The August 31st deadline set by the USA for deployment is not justified by anything. "You have to come to a vote between the allies here," said Röttgen. “Part of the disaster is that the US unilaterally decided to withdraw. A first lesson from this should be that one now agrees and coordinates the evacuation. ”
(Dpa / cibo) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
