Western troops at Kabul airport yesterday worked frantically to evacuate people from Afghanistan before a deadline on Tuesday next week as US President Joe Biden faced growing pressure to negotiate more time for the airlift of thousands trying to flee.
Leaders of the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US — were yesterday due to meet virtually to discuss the crisis.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to push for a deadline extension.
Photo: Reuters
Chaos punctuated by sporadic violence has gripped the airport, with foreign troops and Afghan security guards driving back crowds clamoring to get on flights following the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan capital on Aug. 15.
Countries that have evacuated about 58,700 people over the past 10 days were trying to meet the deadline agreed earlier with the Taliban for the withdrawal of foreign forces, a NATO diplomat said.
“Every foreign force member is working at a war-footing pace to meet the deadline,” said the official, who declined to be identified.
Biden, who has said US troops might stay beyond the deadline, has warned the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful,” and much could still go wrong.
A Taliban official on Monday said that an extension would not be granted, although he said foreign forces had not sought one. Washington said negotiations were continuing.
CIA Director William Burns met Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday, two US sources said.
US Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters after a briefing by intelligence officials that he did not believe the evacuation could be completed in the days remaining.
“It’s possible, but I think it’s very unlikely given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated,” Schiff said.
UK Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace told Sky News he was doubtful there would be a deadline extension, but German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas said Germany was working with the US and Britain to ensure the NATO allies can fly civilians out after the deadline.
In Moscow, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin was interested in serving as a middleman in resolving the crisis along with China, the US and Pakistan.
At the same time, Russia opposes the idea of allowing Afghan refugees to enter the ex-Soviet region of central Asia or having US troops deployed there, he said.
The G7 leaders could discuss taking a united stand on the question of whether to recognize a Taliban government, or alternatively renew sanctions to pressure the Islamist movement to comply with pledges to respect women’s rights and international relations.
“The G7 leaders will agree to coordinate on if, or when, to recognise the Taliban,” one European diplomat said. “And they will commit to continue to work closely together.”
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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