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According to an official, Poland ended its withdrawal from Afghanistan, making it one of the first Western countries to stop operations and help people flee from the Taliban takeover, because the United States is imminent with a full-scale withdrawal.
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz (Marcin Przydacz) said on Wednesday that the group of people evacuated from Kabul, now in Uzbekistan, was the last group to be evacuated from Poland.
President Joe Biden announced the day before that he will abide by his August 31 deadline to complete the U.S. withdrawal and increase the pressure on the already dangerous airlift from Kabul to allow as many people as possible to evacuate in the next few days. .
The European allies asked for more time, but there is no argument. In fact, they may be forced to end the withdrawal a few days before the last US troops leave.
The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan nearly 20 years after being dismissed in an invasion led by the United States after the 9/11 attacks.
Their return to power has forced many Afghans to flee because they fear retaliatory attacks by fighters or return to the brutal rule they imposed when they were in power last time.
The Taliban insisted that the airlift must end on August 31.
Any decision by Biden to stay longer could reignite the war between hardliners and the U.S. military and other coalition forces carrying out airlifts at Kabul Airport.
Deputy Foreign Minister Pridac said his country decided not to continue operations after consulting with US and British officials.
He said: “After a long-term analysis of the security situation report, we can no longer risk the lives of diplomats and soldiers.”
Przydacz said that some troops will stay briefly to end the operation. Poland has used more than a dozen planes to bring hundreds of evacuees to Warsaw. Some people later traveled to other countries.
The Czech Republic announced last week that its evacuation mission has been completed.
Since the 2001 US-led invasion, the Taliban have launched blitzkriegs across Afghanistan and seized control of a country. The country has received hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction assistance and security support. The chaos at Kabul Airport has shocked the world.
Last week, Afghans swarmed on the tarmac. Some people clutched a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, then crashed and died.
At least seven people died that day, and another seven people were killed in a panic stampede on Sunday.
On Monday, a member of the Afghan security forces was killed in an unknown gun battle.
In the days since, thousands of people have poured into the airport, and the United States has been eager to evacuate as many people as possible, relying on its Gulf Arab allies to temporarily house Afghans and other people who fled.
On Wednesday, a group of 51 people arrived in Uganda. Uganda became the first African country to accommodate evacuees.
European countries, including U.S. allies Germany and the United Kingdom, have requested extensions to continue their withdrawal beyond the deadline next week.
CIA Director William Burns even went to Kabul on Monday to meet with the highest political leader of the Taliban. However, even after the G7 emergency online summit, Biden insisted on the August date.
German Chancellor Merkel said in a speech to Parliament: “We have always been very clear that the overall deployment is consistent with the position of the United States, the most powerful military member of the coalition.”
She added: “We will continue the evacuation as long as possible so that the Afghans working with us for security, freedom, rule of law and development can leave the country.”
She did not give the departure date of the last German evacuation flight, but said that even after the end of this effort, the country will still work hard to study “how can we create ways to continue to protect those who have helped us, among other things.” Something for civilian use through Kabul Airport.”
Currently, the US military is responsible for coordinating all air traffic in and out of Kabul Airport. Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen wrote on Twitter that they plan to allow people to leave Kabul Airport on commercial flights after the August deadline.
However, it is not yet clear which commercial airlines will immediately resume flights to airports fully controlled by the Taliban.
Although the deadline is only more than a week away, analyst Patricia Lewis said that the actual deadline to stop the evacuation is “the next few days.”
“You can’t just say,’Well, at midnight, let’s stop now, let’s clean up gently,'” said Lewis, Director of the International Security Project of the International Affairs Think Tank of the Chatham Institute. “There is a lot of work to be done. , Including letting all people and all equipment doing this work leave.”
“All allies are highly dependent on U.S. military cover, especially air cover,” Lewis said. “They can’t put their people in danger, so it really depends on when the US starts packing up.”
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