Afghans refused to leave, says US

Americans and Afghan employees refused to leave Afghanistan ‘for weeks’ before the withdrawal, the Biden administration has revealed.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Picture: AFP

Americans and Afghan employees refused to leave Afghanistan “for weeks” before the withdrawal, the Biden administration has revealed, countering accusation it had bungled the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

It cams as the new Taliban regime said all US troops needed to leave by September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, in his first press conference at the White House since the widely derided US withdrawal from the Afghanistan, said the costs of the controversial withdrawal had been “heartbreaking” but it was “simply wrong” to keep forces in the Middle Eastern nation.

“We offered financial assistance for those who wouldn’t be able to afford to get on flights. Many chose to stay right until the end, and that was their choice. We now are faced with a circumstance where we have to help evacuate those,” he said.

“American men and women would have been fighting and dying once again in Afghanistan, and President Biden was not prepared to send additional forces or ask any personnel to do that over the period ahead,” he added.

The US government has been pilloried by Republicans, Democrats and expert observers for waiting until the last minute to airlift thousands of American personnel and Afghans who had worked for the US government, resulting in chaotic scenes at Kabul’s main airport this week.

“The Afghan government and its supporters, including many of the people now seeking to leave, made a passionate case that we should not conduct a mass evacuation lest we trigger a loss of confidence in the government,” Mr Sullivan said.

“When a civil war comes to an end with an opposing force marching on the capital, there are going to be scenes of chaos, there are going to be lots of people leaving the country. That is not something that can be fundamentally avoided,” he added.

President Joe Biden phoned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “commend the bravery and professionalism of their military and civilian personnel” who were working to evacuate Western staff and their Afghan sympathisers from Kabul.

The Taliban regime held its first press conference a few hours earlier, fuelling hopes the Taliban leadership was ostensibly keen to break with the extremist past that had fuelled the September 2001 terrorist attacks, which sparked the US invasion of Afghanistan and the ensuing a 20-year war.

“When it comes to experience and maturity and vision, of course there’s a huge difference between us now and 20 years ago,” said spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

Mr Mujahid reassured thousands of terrified Afghans who had flooded Kabul airport that they would not suffer retribution and encouraged them to return to their homes.

“We are not going to revenge anybody, we do not have grudges against anybody,’’ he said.

However, a cautious Mr Sullivan said the Taliban “would have to be watched and observed over time” as to whether it was indeed “prepared to meet their obligations to the basic human rights and human dignity of people (and to give) safe passage of people to the airport”.

“The Taliban have informed us that they are prepared to provide the safe passage of civilians to the airport, and we intend to hold them to that commitment,” he said.

Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban’s political office, said the regime was “committed not to attack” US troops, but stressed they must leave by September 11.

Mr Sullivan said he was “not going to speculate on the timetable question”.

Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, cautioned against taking any Taliban remarks at face value.

“This is a very regressive movement, it’s like someone suddenly dragged in from the 1500s, trying to go back to the days of the prophet,” he told The Australian.