President Joe Biden is set to meet with G-7 leaders regarding evacuation efforts in Afghanistan.
The foreign leaders will meet virtually on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday, to discuss “continuing our close coordination on Afghanistan policy and evacuating our citizens, the brave Afghans who stood with us over the last two decades, and other vulnerable Afghans.” They will also consider ways of providing humanitarian support for Afghan refugees.
BIDEN’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION UNDER SCRUTINY AMID AFGHANISTAN COLLAPSE
The Biden administration has scrambled to protect Americans and Afghan allies who are at risk of violent persecution following the Taliban’s swift rise to power in Afghanistan.
There have been approximately 30,000 people evacuated since the end of July, with about 25,100 of them escaping since Aug. 14, according to a White House official. The United States was able to evacuate 3,900 people from 3 a.m. Saturday to 3 a.m. Sunday via 23 military flights, while 35 coalition aircraft were able to evacuate roughly the same number of people.
U.S. officials had previously said they weren’t able to help Americans who were struggling to reach the evacuation point at the airport, though additional resources have now made that a possibility in some instances.
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“We have flown in additional capacity, additional forces. Security is in a more stable position at the airport,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Friday. “So, if there would be a need to do something additional to help Americans or other people at risk that we need to get to the airfield, we would examine those options, tee ‘em up, weigh the benefits versus the risks, and then offer up opportunities to the secretary to make a recommendation, and we would go from there.”
