Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called for international investment and national unity in the country during a speech at the airport.
“I invite you all to come and invest in Afghanistan,” he said. “Your investments will be in good hands. The country will be stable and safe.” He added that after years of war and invasion, “the people do not have more tolerance” for further violence.
President Biden praised U.S. forces for evacuating more than 120,000 Americans and allies and said there was unanimity among military leaders to end the airlift mission as planned.
Biden is expected to address the nation on Tuesday. He is set to “lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
Here’s what to know
Roughly 1,250 Canadian citizens and their family members left behind in Afghanistan
TORONTO — Canadian officials said Tuesday that roughly 1,250 Canadian citizens and their family members were left behind in Afghanistan — the first such estimate provided to the public — while adding that they would resettle 5,000 Afghans evacuated by the United States.
“We’re pulling out all the stops to help as many Afghans as possible who want to make their home in Canada,” Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters at a news conference.
Amid pressure from veterans and advocacy groups, Canada last month announced that it would resettle Afghans who aided Canada’s war effort or its diplomats and their families. It estimated that 6,000 people might be eligible for resettlement under the program.
Canadian officials said last week that the country had evacuated about 3,700 people from Kabul before its evacuation mission ended, including about 2,000 Afghans — far short of the number eligible — in an effort that drew criticism from advocates for being haphazard.
Canada insists that its rescue mission is not over and that it is working with allies on other ways to facilitate the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans, though they might need to make their way to third countries first.
Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said he would be speaking to officials from countries neighboring Afghanistan to facilitate the entry of those left behind. He also said that he is pushing the Taliban to allow those with valid travel documents to leave Afghanistan.”
Afghans with travel documents to other countries must be allowed to move safely and freely out of the country without interference,” Garneau said. “Canada and its allies are firm on this point.”
Analysis: No, the Taliban did not seize $83 billion worth of U.S. weapons
“ALL EQUIPMENT should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost.”
— Former president Donald Trump, in a statement, Aug. 30
We don’t normally pay much attention to claims made by the former president, as he mostly just riffs golden oldies. But this is a new claim. A version of this claim also circulates widely on right-leaning social media — that somehow the Taliban has ended up with $83 billion in U.S. weaponry. (Trump, as usual, rounds the number up.)
The $83 billion number is not invented out of whole cloth. But it reflects all the money spent to train, equip and house the Afghan military and police — so weapons are just a part of that. At this point, no one really knows the value of the equipment that was seized by the Taliban.
What we lost in Afghanistan: Readers share their sacrifices from 20 years of war
Twenty years after the United States launched its longest war, militants are back in control in Afghanistan. The Taliban’s rapid return to power — beamed across television, computer and smartphone screens around the globe — was deeply personal for many who fought in the war, who helped the country rebuild or were forced to flee amid the violence.
Their stories, shared in interviews, illustrate the ongoing, everyday impact of the war in Afghanistan on people spanning continents and communities. The war has left a mark on people who, despite being worlds apart, are bound by the same feeling — an overwhelming sense of personal sacrifice. Here’s what they lost.
Taliban’s shadowy supreme leader presided over three-day leadership meeting in Kandahar
The Taliban’s senior leadership held a three-day meeting this week in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city and birthplace of the extremist group.
Earlier in the week, reports circulated that Haibatullah was in Kandahar, stirring speculation. The extremist cleric has not been publicly seen in years.
The meetings concerned the “current political, security and social issues of the country,” Mohammad Naeem, spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, said Tuesday on Twitter.
He added, “At the end of the meeting, the esteemed leader of the Islamic Emirate [Haibatullah] gave comprehensive instructions to the members of the council and made them all aware of their responsibilities.”
Since Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul on Aug. 16, it has remained unclear exactly what kind of government the Taliban will preside over.
The group has pledged to make unifying the war-torn country a central aim, but its record of brutal repression and gender-based violence has left many Afghans fearful of its return to power. Others have welcomed the Taliban as an alternative to the U.S. military presence and to the corruption that flourished under the Western-backed government.
An Afghan politician spent her life working for women’s rights. She barely made it out of the country.
Fawzia Koofi spent years fighting for women’s rights in Afghanistan. She survived at least two assassinations attempts and then last year, sat face-to-face with Taliban leaders to negotiate the country’s future.
But the former Afghan legislator, who once hoped to run for president, finally left Kabul Monday night on one of the last evacuation flight, despite the Taliban militants who had put her under house arrest — and who now control her home.
Hours after landing in the gulf nation of Qatar, Koofi said the Afghanistan now felt unsafe but the outspoken Taliban critic pledged she would one day return.
“It was heartbreaking to see how everything collapsed,” she said in a BBC radio interview on Tuesday.
Senate passes measure to expand temporary assistance to Americans returning from Afghanistan
During a minute-long pro forma session Tuesday morning, the Senate unanimously passed a measure that will increase funding available to provide temporary assistance to Americans returning from Afghanistan.
H.R. 5085, the Emergency Repatriation Assistance for Returning Americans Act, was approved by the House last month. It expands the pool of funding for temporary aid to Americans evacuated from Afghanistan, generally for 90 days after their arrival.
The aid may include “money payments, medical care, temporary billeting, transportation and other goods and services necessary for the health or welfare of individuals,” according to the Social Security Act, which the legislation amends.
Vice President Harris was presiding Tuesday morning in her role as president of the Senate when the measure was passed.
Long reluctant India finally meets with top Taliban leader
NEW DELHI — India said Tuesday that one of its envoys had met with Mohammad Abas Stanikzai, the head of the Taliban’s political office, in a possible move toward detente between the group and the regional player that is perhaps least receptive to it.
The meeting between the Indian ambassador to Qatar, Deepak Mittal, took place Tuesday in Doha at Stanikzai’s request, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said. The meeting — the first of its kind to be publicized by India — came three days after the Taliban leader made a striking appeal to New Delhi in a video message, saying that he viewed India as “very important for this subcontinent” and hoped that trade and cultural ties would normalize.
Since the United States reached a peace deal with the Taliban last year, India has been one of the major countries most wary of it. Even as countries including Russia, China and Iran have publicly hosted the Taliban for talks, India has shied away, at least publicly, from meeting with a group it considers to be a terrorist organization under the control of its arch-nemesis, Pakistan.
India’s position has softened in recent months. Indian officials acknowledged for the first time in June that its envoys had held conversations with the Taliban but did not disclose details. India has long blamed the Taliban for, among other things, abetting gunmen who hijacked an Indian Airlines flight in 1999 to demand the release of a Pakistani militant leader Masood Azhar.
In a statement Tuesday, the Indian government said its ambassador discussed with Stanikzai security issues related to Indian citizens stranded in Afghanistan and raised India’s concern that “Afghanistan’s soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism.”
Stanikzai “assured the Ambassador that these issues would be positive addressed,” the Indian statement said.
The meeting raises the question of whether India would give formal diplomatic recognition to the Taliban, which has already been embraced by Pakistan and China. Indian officials have said they would adopt a wait-and-see approach alongside other democratic countries.
“Currently, there is no clarity about any entity forming a government in Kabul,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said Friday. “I think we are jumping the gun regarding recognition.”
Biden national security adviser pledges U.S. will evacuate any remaining Americans who want to leave Afghanistan
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, on Tuesday defended the administration’s handling of the evacuations of Americans from Afghanistan and said that the United States “will get out any person who wants to get out.” An estimated 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan and want to leave, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“At the end of the day, the question will be, did we protect those American citizens? Did they get out if they wanted to get out? We believe that we will get out any person who wants to get out, and we will have completed that mission,” Sullivan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Tuesday.
Sullivan called the withdrawal of U.S. troops a “tough call,” adding, “President Biden made that hard call, and it is a call he believes will ultimately serve the interests of our people, all of our citizens and our country.”
Sullivan also said that the U.S. plans to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, but that the money will flow through entities such as the World Health Organization and the World Food Program as well as through nongovernmental organizations.
“We do believe that there is an important dimension of humanitarian assistance that should go directly to the people of Afghanistan. … It’s not going to flow through the Taliban,” he said.
Taliban spokesman calls on international community to keep investing in Afghanistan
Speaking before a male-only crowd at Kabul’s airport, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid implored the world to continue to invest in Afghanistan, insisting that the extremist group wants good relations with all countries and Afghan factions.
“Most important is our national unity, integrity,” he said. “And that’s why we need all the economic experts and professionals to step forward, come together and lay down a road map for the future.”
“I invite you all to come and invest in Afghanistan,” he continued. “Your investments will be in good hands. The country will be stable and safe.”
Echoing comments he made in front of some of the Taliban’s elite fighters during an earlier tour of the airport Tuesday, he said, “Our nation has suffered war and invasion, and the people do not have more tolerance.”
About 90 percent of Afghans live below the poverty line, according to government figures, and the return of the Taliban, whose leadership is under various forms of economic sanctions, has threatened to further undermine the country’s economy, which is dependent on foreign aid.
The United States spent billions of dollars on aid to Afghanistan during its two decades at war. But critics say much of the money was lost to corruption that saturated the U.S.-backed Afghan government. The Taliban, in contrast, has sought to portray itself as the less-corrupt alternative, and in his remarks, Mujahid promised that any aid would be responsibly used.
But the extremist group’s record of violent repression of women and intolerance of religious and political freedoms has, so far, made it a political pariah for much of the international community.
Last week, the World Bank froze its aid to Afghanistan, citing its concerns over “the country’s development prospects, especially for women,” under Taliban rule. The International Monetary Fund has similarly blocked access to Afghanistan’s $460 million in emergency reserves. The United States has blocked about $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves held in U.S. institutions.
On Monday, Russia’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, called on the international community to unfreeze the Afghan government’s reserves, saying the economic isolation could lead to a rise in illegal narcotics and arms traffic.
German leader estimates there could be up to 40,000 Afghans eligible to be evacuated
BERLIN — As many as 40,000 vulnerable Afghans and family members who worked with German organizations have been left behind in Afghanistan, and the German government is assessing if they want to leave the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday.
German officials have said this week that the country’s evacuation flights managed to rescue just 138 local staffers for Germany along with their dependents from Kabul, a total of 634 people.
Meanwhile, they have indicated that they now believe that the number of Afghan employees and family members who are eligible to relocate to Germany could be as many as four times their initial estimate of 10,000 people.
“We now have to look at how many of them would like to leave the country and how many don’t,” Merkel said in a joint news conference Tuesday with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. That will depend on the situation on the ground, she said.
“No one leaves home lightly,” she added. “We’ve seen that over and over again.”
However, with official border crossings closed and military evacuation flights over, it’s unclear how those who are vulnerable and still in the country can be brought to safety. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is on a three-day visit to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Turkey to discuss the safe exit of evacuees.
Uzbekistan has said that it will allow Afghans transiting to Germany to temporarily enter, but only by air, adding that it will keep its land border closed.
In total, Germany flew out some 3,849 Afghans on evacuation flights over the past two weeks. “We cannot cleanly differentiate who the others are,” Steve Alter, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said Monday.
On first day without any U.S. presence in 20 years, Kabul is quiet
KABUL — On the first day without U.S. forces in Afghanistan in nearly two decades, central Kabul was uncharacteristically quiet Tuesday. Shops were largely open, but few cars were on the roads.
“Today is the day we won our freedom,” said Raz Muhammad Zarkawi, a Taliban fighter celebrating by handing out the group’s white flags along a main thoroughfare.
“This is the result of 20 years of sacrifices,” he said.
The 27-year-old from Farah province had never been to Kabul before the group took over the city just over two weeks ago.
“This will be a great capital city, and we will make it even better,” he said. “Kabul will soon be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.”
But for many other Afghans in Kabul and elsewhere in the country, Tuesday marks the beginning of yet another period of uncertainty as they wait to see what kind of government, if any, will follow the collapse of President Ashraf Ghani’s administration and the full withdrawal of foreign forces.
Taliban leaders are meeting with former Afghan officials in a bid to reach a deal that would legitimize their leadership of Afghanistan to the international community. But former Afghan officials say the militants have not presented them with a proposal for a new government and that negotiations are not yet substantive.
Analysis: Speed of Taliban takeover shakes Europe’s faith in Biden
Just a few months ago, the honeymoon seemed in full bloom. President Biden arrived in Brussels in June and was treated like a long-lost friend. “America is back on the global scene,” Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said to Biden in front of the media. “It’s great news for our alliance.”
But as the summer wanes, so too has the transatlantic romance that accompanied Biden’s ascent to power earlier this year.
Shadowing all deliberations is the sudden Taliban takeover in Afghanistan and the seemingly chaotic handling of the American withdrawal, which have shaken European faith in Biden’s decision-making and priorities. Last week, European leaders and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressed Biden to delay his planned Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal. He didn’t budge.
For myriad European politicians and diplomats, particularly in countries that invested a great deal in supporting the two-decade-long NATO mission in Afghanistan, the events of the past weeks have served as a gut check.
Resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley repulse Taliban attack, officials say
Resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley clashed with the Taliban overnight, killing several and repulsing what they described as an attack on the last area outside the militant group’s control.
Fahim Qiami, secretary to local leader Ahmad Wali Massoud, said the Panjshir fighters clashed with the Taliban on the western edge of the rugged valley. “The Taliban have sustained some casualties in the clashes,” he confirmed. He added that the fighters ambushed the Taliban and inflicted heavy losses.
The Taliban, which took over the airport in the capital as the last U.S. forces withdrew Monday night, has not commented on the fighting.
In just over a week, the Taliban swept across Afghanistan and took over every province except the Panjshir, which is now held by several thousand militia and former army fighters, who call themselves the National Resistance Forces.
The area was the center of resistance to the Taliban the first time they ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.
Both the Taliban and the Panjshir leaders have said they are open to resolving the standoff through negotiations. Taliban forces surrounded the valley, the country’s smallest province, on all sides.
Unlike in the late 1990s, however, the isolated Panjshir is cut off from potential sources of supplies in other countries, and there are doubts about how long it would be able to hold out against a concerted Taliban assault.
America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan ends as the last troops and diplomats leave
The United States ended its longest war in history, and its 20-year presence in Afghanistan, as the last U.S. aircraft took off at one minute before midnight from Kabul airport Monday carrying all remaining American troops and diplomats.
“I’m here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,” the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., announced at a news conference about an hour later as the final C-17 plane cleared Afghan airspace. The last to leave, he said, were Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, the commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, and acting American ambassador Ross Wilson.
President Biden issued a written statement saying he would address the American people Tuesday afternoon.
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