Joe Biden won’t extend Afghanistan evacuation – VG

The final confirmation came at a brief news conference late Tuesday night.

The United States was on track to finish by August 31, was a letter from the President of the United States.

Biden said the sooner we finish, the better.

Although Britain, France, Spain and NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg, among others, have asked Americans to stay longer, because there are still people to evacuate, it appears that the United States will withdraw by August 31.

This will also have consequences for Norwegian authorities evacuate.

Here’s what Biden said: “Every day takes a bigger risk.”

Biden began by noting that they have evacuated 70,700 from Afghanistan since August 14 – 6,400 in the past 12 hours alone.

“We’re going to finish on August 31,” the US president said.

– Every day the effort continues, and it gives more risks to our forces, he continues.

Meanwhile, he emphasized that the August 31 deadline depended on “the Taliban continuing to cooperate” and providing access to the airport for evacuees by the United States.

The president emphasized that he had asked the Pentagon and State Department contingency plans for an adjusted schedule (ie, extraction at another time) “if necessary.” However, it highlights what he calls the “acute” risk of terrorist attacks by the ISIS group in Afghanistan, called ISIS-K.

“Every day we spend on the ground is a new day in which we know that ISIS is targeting the airport and attacking US forces and their allies and innocent civilians,” Biden said.

The President left the press conference after his brief statement – and without answering any questions.

In short – this is the drama of the evacuation:

• With less than a week to go until the US military left Afghanistan, there was frantic activity surrounding the evacuation from Kabul.
• Senior leaders from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO held an online meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
• France and Germany both entered the meeting wanting the Americans to stay longer. Norway wants the same thing, because when the Americans come out, The Norwegian field hospital must also be closed and the Norwegian evacuations halted.

• NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said during the G7 meeting that the operation should continue, so that the evacuation could continue, according to the NTB. European Union President Charles Michel and other allies “to secure the airport as long as necessary” to continue the evacuation.
• The Pentagon also confirmed on Tuesday that all Americans who want to leave Afghanistan will be evacuated on August 31. But what about all the Afghans who worked with the Americans? It’s more ambiguous. Thus, several countries said that they would not be able to remove everyone they worked with before this deadline.
• Norway can not guarantee They are evacuating all Norwegian citizens who seek help. France had announced earlier that it would halt evacuations on Thursday evening.
• The Taliban said Monday that the extension of the deadline It will have consequences – that August 31 is a “red line”. On Tuesday, they repeated: The Taliban will finish all evacuations by that day.