Qatar has also given a diplomatic allowance for the flights to land, but the Taliban must first allow the planes to depart Mazar-i-Sharif.
About 1,000 people, including dozens of American citizens and Afghans holding permissions to the United States or other countries, remained stuck in Afghanistan for the fifth day Sunday as they awaited permission from the Taliban for their departure.
Around 1000 US citizens, others wait for evacuation from Afghanistan
The holdup reflects the difficulties of foreign governments working with the group, which has yet to form a government.
- Consultations to allow the planes to depart, involving officials of the Taliban, the United States, and Qatar, have dragged on for days, leaving the evacuees in an increasingly precarious limbo, according to spokespeople of organizations working to get them to safety.
The plight of the travelers wishing to move the country from the airport in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif mirrors that of thousands of people who were unable to board planes from Kabul, the capital after Taliban protesters took the city on the eve of the US troop withdrawal.
- The US pullout and the end of the two-decade war in Afghanistan were controlled by chaotic efforts to airlift tens of thousands of Americans and their allies fleeing the Islamist fighters, who many fear will limit the rights of women and others once they officially turn to power.
U.S. President Joe Biden
The Biden organization has faced exposition for leaving Americans and Afghan allies back after the last troops left Aug. 30.
US-backed government
The confusion surrounding the departure of the chartered planes from Mazar reflects the chaos in Afghanistan resulting from the departure of the United States and its Western allies and fears that the Taliban will disappoint to make great on their promises to respect human rights and not persecute Afghans who supported with the US-backed government.
“The reason the Taliban wants to stop these people from leaving is likely because they think to punish them for their cooperation with the US,” said Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official who has been working with the group Task Force Dunkirk to help evacuate Afghans from the country.
If the Taliban really are using people as a bargaining chip, Mulroy said, that “is unacceptable.”
- Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee suggested during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the Taliban were preventing six airplanes from leaving Afghanistan, effectively holding Americans hostage.
“State has realized these flights, and the Taliban will not let them leave the airport,” McCaul said, adding that he believed the problem was “turning into a hostage situation.”
Taliban wanted “something in exchange” ?
- McCaul said the Taliban wanted “something in exchange” for allowing takeoff of the planes. He said he thought they were seeking “full acknowledgment from the United States of America.”
Though the State Department and organizers on the ground in Qatar countered McCaul’s description of the situation, saying the planes had received necessary clearance and were awaiting final approval from the Taliban.
United States of America.
“The Taliban are not holding the planes hostage,” said Eric Montalvo, a former major with the US Marines who is directly involved in organizing the flights.
According to documents reviewed by The New York Times, the US military approved three flights to take about 1,000 evacuees, including dozens of American citizens, to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
Mazar-i-Sharif
Qatar has also given diplomatic clearance for the flights to land, but the Taliban necessity first allows the planes to depart Mazar-i-Sharif.
“If and when the Taliban accepts to take off, we are following that the landing sites will be provided to allow the expected flights,” the State Department said in an email to congressional officials that were reviewed by The Times.
It added that the United States no longer controlled the airspace over Afghanistan.
“It is a Taliban decision to ground flights in Mazar-i-Sharif,” the email said. “We are, however, providing guidance and assistance to the extent possible — and with an importance on safety — to private entities managing out of Mazar.”
For organizations that have been working around the clock to get US citizens and at-risk Afghans out of the country, the situation has been frustrating and frightening
U.S |a2zblog.in
Marina LeGree, founder and executive director of Ascend, a nonprofit organization that provided athletic and climbing training to women, told 34 people from her group, which includes girls ages 16-23, had traveled from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif in hopes of boarding a plane at end of the week.
Still, she denied that the evacuees were being held hostage, saying that they were free to leave to the airport, as some have.
The situation, she said, is growing direr by the day.
“The pressure is building. The crowd is growing. It’s just a nasty scene,” she said. “For us, we can’t go back. The girls are terrified. My girls are all Hazaras. Moving back is just not a choice. They’re truly desperate to leave.”
Hazaras, an ethnic minority, were targeted for abuse by the Taliban when the group previously held power before the US-led invasion in 2001.
US government
LeGree said she is calling on the US government to use its connections to press the Taliban to let the contingent leave the country.
- “I’m totally worried. I’ve got teenage girls in there,” she said. “Surely we have people in the US government who know who to press on. We can’t fix Afghanistan, but this is one thing we can fix.”
In a report released Sunday, the State Department said the US government had few resources at its disposal to force an evacuation.
“We agree with the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan,” the department said in its statement.
“However, we do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace — whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region.”
Afghanistan
Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan was near the bottom of every list when it came to protections for women and at the top in terms of the need for any efforts that would make it likely to keep them secure.
Since they swept to power last month, Taliban leaders have sought to convince the world that the harsh control they imposed when their last stint in leadership, from 1996 to 2001, was a thing of the past. But there have been multiple reports of abuse of women, and Saturday, members of the Taliban beat women in Kabul who were protesting for their rights.
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Source: The Indian express
