US President Joe Biden will stick, for now, with an August 31 deadline to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, according to a senior administration official, after determining the risks of Taliban reprisal or terror attacks were too high.
European allies of the United States stressed during the talks that they wanted to ensure any possibility of a deadline extension was considered by the US, according to a person familiar with the call. The crisis talks of the G7 come as the Afghanistan evacuation effort has picked up steam in the past days, now far exceeding the administration's initial daily goals. The White House said on Tuesday that 12,700 people were evacuated by 37 US military flights and 8,900 were evacuated by coalition flights over the past 24 hours. The Pentagon added that the military has increased the pace of flights out of Kabul to one aircraft every 45 minutes.
The administration has remained in daily discussion with the Taliban on security matters, including the end-of-month deadline. The CIA director, Bill Burns, traveled to Afghanistan this week to meet with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, according to senior administration officials, who said the US is seeking a clearer understanding of where the Taliban stands on several issues as the clock ticks towards the deadline.
Any extension would have been likely be very brief and focused only on evacuating Americans, according to one official familiar with the matter, who said all contingencies were under discussion. The Taliban has made clear that"our leadership will take proper and necessary decision" should the US stay past August 31, spokesman Sohail Shaheen said Monday.
Even some US Democrats agree; House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff emerged from a classified briefing with intelligence officials on Monday pessimistic the Biden administration will be able to meet its goal of evacuating all Americans and its allies from Afghanistan by August 31, saying that was"very unlikely."
"There was strong, bipartisan support to extend the August 31 deadline," said Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat."That was a major theme, a major comment a major point we all tried to make, urging them to do more to advocate with the President to extend the deadline."
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