Aug 31 not a cliff, will use substantial leverage with Taliban to allow safe passage for evacuation
Washington, Aug 29 (Agency) US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said that August 31 is “not a cliff” and that the US believes it has “substantial leverage” with the Taliban to hold it to its commitments to allow safe passage to American citizens still left behind. In a State of the Union interview with CNN, Sullivan on Sunday also termed the final hours before the US completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31 as an “exceedingly dangerous moment in an exceedingly dangerous mission”. He also said that the two ISIS-Khorasan operatives killed by the US in a drone strike in Nangarhar province on Friday were “involved in the facilitation and planning and production of explosive devices” and were part of the larger network of ISIS-K that are seeking to target Americans at Kabul airport and “US interests in Afghanistan and beyond”.
Asked how many US citizens are left in Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated, he said: ”We believe we are down to a population of 300 or fewer American citizens who are yet to get out. We have evacuated more than 5,000; we evacuated more than 300 just yesterday.” “We believe there is still an opportunity for American citizens to get to the airport, get on planes and get home. August 31 is not a cliff, after August 31, we believe that we have substantial leverage to hold the Taliban to its commitment to allow safe passage for American citizens, Legal Permitted Residents and the Afghan allies who have travel documentation to come to the US. We will use that leverage to the maximum extent and we will work with the rest of the international community to ensure the Taliban does not falter on its commitments.”
Asked about the threat of further attacks, after US President Joe Biden on Saturday warned that another terrorist attack on Kabul’s airport is “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours”, the NSA said: ”This is an exceedingly dangerous moment in an exceedingly dangerous mission, and we are doing everything in our power to prevent and disrupt the threat streams that we are seeing, and stopping any kind of attacks that will endanger the lives of American service members or civilians trying to get to the airport.”