Afghanistan crisis: France will stop Kabul evacuations by Aug 27, says PM Jean Castex

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan on August 15, ending a blitz of over two months. As the Afghan security forces capitulated and chaos ensued, foreign countries began evacuating their citizens and allies through massive airlifts operations. Led by the US which has, till now, pulled out over 82,300 non-combatants out of the war-torn territory, countries including the UK, Australia, India, Germany, France amongst others began repatriation ops. Now in a massive development, France has announced that it will halt its evacuations starting the night of Friday, August 27. 

On Thursday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that his country would not be able to evacuate people from Kabul due to the US deadline of withdrawal, which is August 31. “From tomorrow evening onwards, we are not able to evacuate people from the Kabul airport,” the leader told French radio station RTL. As of now, the Emmanuel Macron administration has successfully airlifted over 2,000 Afghan residents and roughly a hundred French nations from the conflict-hit country. 

After French President Emmanuel Macron said that the country was opening its arms to help the threatened people in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, the French foreign ministry said that the evacuation operations that started on August 16, are continuing. Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that even though the foreign nationals could continue travelling to the airport, the Afghans will not be allowed to leave the country after August 31. The insurgents, that took over Afghanistan on August 15, also warned that the United States must stick to its deadline of month-end to withdraw all troops.

Taliban-Resistance Front hold talks

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan and the Taliban held talks for the first time on Wednesday, according to a media report. Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, a former member of the Wolesi Jirga- the Lower House of Afghanistan, claimed that the Taliban delegation had 7 members while the resistance forces were represented by 12 individuals. Hailing from Panjshir, Mansoor asserted that the meeting took place in Charikar, the capital city of the Parwan province in which both sides agreed to continue the dialogue and avoid attacks on each other's positions. 

Image: AP