Afghanistan News Highlights: PM Johnson says UK owes 'huge debt' to Afghan refugees

President Joe Biden on Tuesday mounted a fierce defense of his exit from Afghanistan as the "best decision for America," the day after the US military withdrawal celebrated by the Taliban as a major victory. Meanwhile, Britain is in direct talks with the Taliban over securing safe passage out of Afghanistan for UK nationals and Afghans who have worked for Britain.

Taliban to unveil new government in days after US troops leave Afghanistan

The Taliban and other Afghan leaders have reached a “consensus” on the formation of a new government and cabinet under the leadership of the group’s top spiritual leader, an official said.

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Is Taliban a terror group? Omar Abdullah asks Centre to clarify

A day after India officially talked to the Taliban, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday asked the Union government to clarify whether or not it considered the outfit a terror organisation.

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'Qatar jet carrying technical team lands in Kabul'

A Qatari aircraft landed in Kabul Wednesday carrying a technical team to discuss the resumption of airport operations after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.\

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Taliban says it has surrounded Afghan resistance fighters, calls for peace

The Taliban has surrounded the only remaining province resisting its rule, a senior leader said on Wednesday, calling on rebels to negotiate a settlement with the group.

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In Afghanistan's Panjshir, anti-Taliban forces fight on

The Taliban on Wednesday called on the holdout bastion of the Panjshir Valley to lay down their arms, as resistance fighters said they had repulsed heavy attacks.

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Centre urged to not let Afghanistan situation be used for communal polarisation in India

Former Union Ministers, ex-bureaucrats and writers on Wednesday urged the Narendra Modi government not to allow any political party to use the developments in Afghanistan to communally polarise Indian society for electoral gains even as they asked it not to discriminate Afghans on grounds of religion in providing shelter.

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Afghanistan central bank board member urges Biden, IMF to release funds

A senior board member of Afghanistan's central bank is urging the USTreasury and the International Monetary Fund to take steps to provide the Taliban-led government limited access to the country's reserves or risk economic disaster.

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The European Union must take action to be better prepared for military evacuations of its citizens in situations such as occurred in Afghanistan in recent weeks, EU Council President Charles Michel said on Wednesday.

"In my view, we do not need another such geopolitical event to grasp that the EU must strive for greater decision-making autonomy and greater capacity for action in the world," he told the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. (Reuters)

Pope inadvertently quotes Putin to chide West's Afghan war

Pope Francis has criticised the West's recent involvement in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy -- although he did it by citing Russia's Vladimir Putin while thinking he was quoting Germany's Angela Merkel.

Asked during a radio interview aired Wednesday about the new political map taking shape in Afghanistan after the United States and its allies withdrew from the Taliban-controlled country after 20 years of war, the pope said he would answer with a quote that he attributed to the German chancellor, whom he described as “one of the world's greatest political figures”. (AP)

PM Johnson says UK owes 'huge debt' to Afghan refugees

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said Britain owed "an immense debt" to Afghans who worked with NATO forces as he announced "vital support" for those resettling in the UK.

But his government is coming under fire after thousands of Afghans who helped NATO and are eligible to move to Britain under the "Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap)" were believed to be have been left stranded in Afghanistan, where they are at the mercy of the Taliban.

More than 8,000 did make it out, and the government announced on Wednesday that they will be given immediate indefinite leave to remain and that £15 million would be provided for additional school places and to support access to the health service. (AFP)

The Kashmir Police has refutedreports claiming that 60 youths have gone missing from different parts of Kashmir valley amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

India's month-long Presidency of the powerful UN Security Council has ended with “substantive” outcomes on key global issues including a strong resolution on the situation in Afghanistan that reflected India's views and concerns, and demanded that the Afghan territory not be used to threaten any country or shelter terrorists.

India, currently serving a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the 15-nation Security Council, assumed the rotating Presidency of the UN body for the month of August.

The Presidency ended with the first resolution being adopted by the Council on the situation in Afghanistan following the takeover of Kabul by the Taliban on the penultimate day of India's Presidency of the Security Council for the month of August.

US President Biden calls evacuation from Afghanistan 'extraordinary success'

With no evacuation flights, Afghans weigh risky overland trips to borders

As the last UStroops prepared to leave Afghanistan, Hussain, a USpassport holder who worked with the USmilitary, scrambled with his six daughters through Taliban checkpoints to the gates of Kabul airport for several days in a row, hoping to catch a flight to safety.

He had called and emailed the USEmbassy for days without a response. Then a USsoldier phoned him to say his only chance for a flight out was alone, without his daughters who are not UScitizens. Hussain's wife had died in July of Covid-19, and leaving would mean abandoning them. (Reuters)

A plane carrying 175 Afghans fleeing their strife-torn homeland arrived in Mexico on Tuesday night on one of the last flights to leave Kabul on the day U.S. forces completed a withdrawal that left Taliban Islamist militants in control of Afghanistan.

It was the fourth group of Afghan civilians granted entry by Mexico on humanitarian grounds. A foreign ministry statement said the latest group to arrive included independent journalists and activists accompanied by their families, including 75 children.

Three previous flights from Afghanistan to Mexico over the past week included Afghan media workers from prominent US-based newspapers. (Reuters)

Vigil held for slain US Marine in her home city

A US Marine who was among 13 killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan was honoured Tuesday evening in her hometown.

Officials in Lawrence, Massachusetts, held a vigil with Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo's family at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Rosario, 25, died in the Aug. 26 bombing at the Kabul airport, where people were being evacuated amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. A dozen other USservice members and 169 Afghans were killed. (AP)

"We want a good relationship with India. We don’t want anyone to think wrong about us. India has helped our enemy for twenty years but we are ready to forget everything and take the relationship forward,"Anas Haqqani told News18.

Britain in talks with Taliban over safe passage of remaining nationals

Britain has opened talks with the Taliban over the "safe passage" of its remaining nationals and allies out of Afghanistan after the hardline Islamist group's quickfire takeover of the country last month.

The British government confirmed to AFP it has dispatched senior civil servant Simon Gass to meet with Taliban representatives in Doha.

Much of the group's senior leadership lived in exile in the Qatari capital until the overthrow of Afghanistan's Western-backed government after 20 years of war.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire after many Afghans who helped NATO -- and are eligible to move to Britain -- were believed to have been left stranded in Afghanistan, where they are at the mercy of the Taliban. (AFP)

Post-Afghan withdrawal, India and US can together fight terrorism: Krishnamoorthi

After the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan bringing to an end its longest war in history, an influential Indian-American lawmaker has said that India and the US can assist each other in the fight against terrorism.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said the US should continue its counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan so that it will not become a safe haven for terror groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda. (PTI)

Transcript of Biden's speech on Afghanistan

"In April, I made a decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of Aug. 31 for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban.

That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown, turned out not to be accurate. But I still instructed our national security team to prepare for every eventuality, even that one. And that’s what we did. So we were ready when the Afghan security forces, after two decades of fighting for their country and losing thousands of their own, did not hold on as long as anyone expected.

We were ready when they and the people of Afghanistan watched their own government collapse and the president flee amid the corruption and malfeasance, handing over the country to their enemy the Taliban and significantly increasing the risk to US personnel and our allies.

As a result, to safely extract Americans citizens before Aug. 31, as well as embassy personnel, allies and partners and those Afghans who had worked with us and fought alongside of us for 20 years, I had authorized 6,000 American troops to Kabul to help secure the airport."

Transcript of Biden's speech on Afghanistan

"Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan. The longest war in American history. We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts thought were possible. No nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it, and we did it today.

The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals. For weeks, they risked their lives to get American citizens, Afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners and others on board planes and out of the country.

They did it facing a crush of enormous crowds seeking to leave the country. They did it knowing ISIS-K terrorists, sworn enemies of the Taliban, were lurking in the midst of those crowds. And still, the women and men of the United States military, our diplomatic corps and intelligence professionals did their job and did it well. Risking their lives, not for professional gains but to serve others. Not in a mission of war but in a mission of mercy."

New US challenge in Afghanistan: Coping with Taliban rule

Even as the United States finalises its departure from Afghanistan, it faces a dilemma there as wrenching as any during the 20-year war: how to deal with the new Taliban government.

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US touts leverage but influence on Taliban seen as limited

After ending the 20-year US war, President Joe Biden hopes America's economic might can serve as leverage on the Taliban to shape the new Afghanistan. But experts question how much the triumphant Islamists can be swayed.

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Pakistan frets over security threats from neighbouring Afghanistan

There is growing concern among Pakistani officials about security in neighbouring Afghanistan, as the Taliban tries to form a government and stabilise the country following the departure of US and other foreign forces.

Islamabad is particularly worried about militant fighters from a separate, Pakistani Taliban group crossing from Afghanistan and launching lethal attacks on its territory. Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in jihadist violence in the last two decades.

(Reuters)

American flags mark the area where the Texas Rangers have reserved 13 seats to honour the 13 US service member recently killed in Afghanistan before the Texas Rangers take on the Colorado Rockies at Globe Life Field on August 31, 2021, in Arlington, Texas. Credit: AFP Photo

PM Johnson says UK owes 'huge debt' to Afghan refugees

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said Britain owed "an immense debt" to Afghans who worked with NATO forces as he announced "vital support" for those resettling in the UK.

But his government is coming under fire after thousands of Afghans who helped NATO and are eligible to move to Britain under the "Relocations and Assistance Policy" were believed to be have been left stranded in Afghanistan, where they are at the mercy of the Taliban.

(AFP)

US has enormous leverage over Taliban, claims White House

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that the US has enormous leverage, including access to the global marketplace, over the Taliban as it seeks to get the remaining Americans and allies out of Afghanistan following the US military withdrawal.

(Reuters)

Biden, for his part, issued a written statement praising US troops who oversaw the airlift of more than 120,000 Afghans, US citizens and allies for their “unmatched courage, professionalism, and resolve.” He said he would have more to say on Tuesday.

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'We are not done with you': Biden warns Afghanistan's IS-K militants

US President Joe Biden warned the Islamic State-Khorasan, the group which killed 13 US troops in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport, that they face more retribution from Washington.

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A Taliban fighter attends a rally in Kabul on August 31, 2021 as they celebrate after the US pulled all its troops out of the country to end a brutal 20-year war -- one that started and ended with the hardline Islamist in power. Credit: AFP Photo

Qatar urges Taliban to combat 'terrorism' after US' Afghan pullout

Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, urged the Taliban on Tuesday to combat terrorism after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and called for an inclusive government.

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Biden cites Afghan military, Trump role in messy Afghanistan exit

President Joe Biden on Tuesday rejected criticism of his decision to stick to a deadline to pull out of Afghanistan this week, a move that left 100 to 200 Americans in the country along with thousands of US-aligned Afghan citizens.

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UN chief warns of 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Afghanistan

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday of a looming "humanitarian catastrophe" in Afghanistan as he urged countries to provide emergency funding following the departure of US forces.

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Taliban supporters hold mock US funeral as troops leave Afghanistan

Taliban supporters paraded coffins draped with American and NATO flags in the eastern city of Khost on Tuesday, part of celebrations across the country following the withdrawal of the last US troops.

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Taliban walk in front of a military airplane a day after the US troops withdrawal from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Credit: Reuters Photo

France says “a few dozen” French nationals remain in Afghanistan

France says “a few dozen” French nationals remain in Afghanistan, including some who wanted to be evacuated but could not as the last flight left Kabul.

Defense Ministry spokesman Herve Grandjean said in a news conference Tuesday that “all efforts are being done” to allow those left behind to get “a safe and orderly evacuation.”

(AP)

Biden defends US pullout from Afghanistan as Taliban celebrate

President Joe Biden on Tuesday mounted a fierce defense of his exit from Afghanistan as the "best decision for America," the day after the US military withdrawal celebrated by the Taliban as a major victory.

"This is the right decision. A wise decision. And the best decision for America," Biden said in an address to the nation in Washington, after he stuck to an August 31 deadline to end two decades of bloodshed that began and ended with the hardline Islamists in power.

(AFP)

UK in talks with Taliban to allow safe passage out of Afghanistan

Britain is in direct talks with the Taliban over securing safe passage out of Afghanistan for UK nationals and Afghans who have worked for Britain, a government spokesperson said late on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's special representative for Afghan transition, Simon Gass, travelled to Doha, Qatar, to meet with Taliban representatives, the spokesperson said in a statement.

(Reuters)

Key Biden decisions on Afghanistan

From the surprisingly swift collapse of the Afghan government to a devastating suicide bombing that killed US troops, President Joe Biden has been adamant on ending America's longest war.

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Biden battles to win narrative in speech on Afghan exit

President Joe Biden addresses the nation Tuesday on the US exit from Afghanistan after a failed 20-year war that he'd vowed to end -- but whose chaotic last days are now overshadowing his presidency.

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Good morning, readers. Welcome to your live coverage of the Afghanistan crisis!