One House Democrat has revealed top U.S. diplomatic and military officials have suggested completing evacuations from Kabul’s chief airport by the August 31 deadline could be too tall a task.
The Hill reports:
“There has been and remains an overwhelming bipartisan consensus that this cannot be done by August 31,” Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who served as a senior State Department official during the Obama administration, said following a classified briefing for House lawmakers. Malinowski said the officials who briefed the lawmakers, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated the Aug. 31 deadline was unrealistic. He said Blinken, Austin and Milley are “being very candid actually. The practical problem is — and they’re not disputing any of this — is that you can’t do this by August 31… they’re not sugarcoating any of this.”
Malinowski’s comments come as President Joe Biden is expected to confirm that he will stick to the deadline after the Taliban warned that extending it would render “consequences.”
“It’s a red line. President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that,” Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen told Sky News on Tuesday.
“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences. It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction,” he added.
Several Democrats have voiced opposition to Biden bending to the Taliban’s will, urging the president to extend the evacuation deadline.
“It’s clear that the sentiment in the room on both sides of the aisle is that we need to move off this 8/31 deadline and there doesn’t seem to be any kind of reassurance that we can get what needs to be done by then, from the briefers or from our side,” she said. “Hopefully the president’s going to move off that deadline,” Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) said.
An internal government document reveals only 3,376 U.S. citizens have been airlifted out of Kabul as of Saturday, Yahoo News said. The Department of Defense remains unable to provide an exact figure on how many Americans are still stranded in the war-torn country.