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US Secretary of State Blinken in Qatar
Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the radical Islamic Taliban have confirmed their promise to continue to allow people to leave Afghanistan.
Blinken told journalists in Qatar that the Taliban had assured the USA that they would allow people with travel documents to "leave the country freely."
The entire international community expects the Taliban to keep this promise, Blinken continued.
"We're going to nail her to it."
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in mid-August, around 123,000 people were flown out via an airlift.
According to the US government, there are still just over a hundred US citizens in Afghanistan, most of them dual citizens.
Tens of thousands of interpreters and other Afghan US Army workers and their families were also left behind.
Many of them fear the Taliban's revenge.
Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin traveled to Qatar on Monday.
At a meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Blinken thanked the emir for Qatar's help with the evacuation mission in Afghanistan.
A large part of the US evacuation operation from the Afghan capital Kabul went through Qatar.
The Gulf state was used as a hub for around 55,000 people who flown out of Afghanistan - and thus for almost half of all those who were brought to safety under US leadership after the Taliban came to power.
Blinken wants to work with Qatar and Turkey
Blinken now wants to work with Qatar and Turkey to reopen Kabul airport to enable further evacuation flights and aid deliveries.
The civil part of Kabul airport is badly damaged.
For this reason, it is currently only possible to leave Afghanistan by land.
The usual exit routes lead via Pakistan and Iran.
However, the US has no diplomatic relations with Iran.
On Monday, a US government official announced that for the first time since the US troops had withdrawn from Afghanistan at the end of August, several US citizens had officially left the country.
Four US citizens traveled overland with the knowledge of the Taliban.
Blinken wants to travel on from Doha to Germany and visit the US military base Ramstein there on Wednesday, which was also used as a hub for evacuation flights.
asa / AFP
