Three European countries are slated to end their evacuation efforts in Kabul, Afghanistan, days before America’s hard deadline to conclude its withdrawal efforts from the country.
Since Aug. 14, the United States has evacuated approximately 82,300 on military flights and coalition flights, according to a White House correspondent with NBC. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his decision remains firm to conclude the nation’s withdrawal efforts by Aug. 31.
Meanwhile, the French evacuation operation from the Hamid Karzai International Airport will likely end on Thursday, said European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune on CNews Wednesday.
Beaune said roughly 2,000 Afghans had been evacuated to France since the beginning of the operation on Aug. 16, adding that over 100 French citizens have been transported and a “few dozen” French citizens remain in Afghanistan.
BIDEN SOWS CHAOS AND CONFUSION AS HE RECOMMITS TO AUG. 31 AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL
Britain’s Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said the United Kingdom’s end of evacuation operations is contingent on the U.S. schedule, noting that British military forces will likely exit the country for the final time on Friday or Saturday. U.S. forces need two to three days to close operations in Kabul, and Britain wants to exit at least 24 hours before that process unfolds, Raab told Sky News.
“We will use every last remaining hour and day to get everyone we can back, the British nationals, the Afghans who worked so loyally for us, we are getting the Chevening scholars back, also women’s rights defenders and journalists,” Raab said, adding that around 2,000 have been evacuated from Kabul’s airport in the last 24 hours.
Poland announced Wednesday that a final group taken from Kabul to Uzbekistan was the last evacuation transport for the country, deputy foreign minister Marcin Przydacz told the Associated Press.
“After a long analysis of reports on the security situation, we cannot risk the lives of our diplomats and of our soldiers any longer,” Przydacz said.
The Taliban have set a strict deadline of Aug. 31 for all foreign evacuations, warning of “consequences” if any troops, including U.S. forces, remain in Afghanistan past the written date.
Biden has warned of threats outside the airport that seek to harm innocent civilians, including Taliban-controlled checkpoints. As many as 4,000 U.S. passport holders have been evacuated from Kabul since Aug. 14, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Every day we’re on the ground is another day we know that ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport and attack both U.S. and allied forces and innocent civilians,” Biden said at the White House Tuesday. “We’ve already had some gunfighting break out. We run a serious risk of it breaking down as time goes on.”
