The Biden administration argues it has financial “leverage” over the Taliban to shape its behavior in the form of billions of dollars in Afghan national bank reserves frozen in the United States and hundreds of millions in paused international aid.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the mission of the U.S. to get the remaining Americans out of Afghanistan had “shifted from a military mission to a diplomatic mission,” adding, “We have considerable leverage over the Taliban to ensure that any remaining American citizen will be able to get out. … We will work through every available diplomatic means with the enormous leverage that we have and that the international community has to make that happen.”