The US on Saturday asked its citizens to leave war-torn Afghanistan as the Taliban intensified its attacks in recent days.
“The US urges its citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately using available commercial flight options. Given the security conditions and reduced staffing, the Embassy’s ability to assist US citizens in Afghanistan is extremely limited even within Kabul,” the US Embassy in Kabul said in a statement.
Earlier at a media briefing on Friday, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the US is “closely tracking” and is “concerned about” retaliatory killings of civilians in Afghanistan.
“If the Taliban claim to want international legitimacy, these actions are not going to get them the legitimacy they seek. They do not have to stay on this trajectory. They could choose to devote the same energy to the peace process as they are to their military campaign,” Afghanistan’s TOLO News quoted Psaki as saying.
Since the foreign troops started leaving Afghanistan, the Taliban had been extensively fighting with the Afghan government in an attempt to gain control of key areas.
The international community will not accept a military takeover of Afghanistan or a return of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, the US said on Friday as a top UN official warned that Afghanistan descending into a situation of catastrophe would have consequences far beyond the borders of the war-torn nation. “The alarming rise in violence and civilian casualties caused by the ongoing Taliban military offensive further erodes the advances the Afghan people made in democracy and the rule of law over the last 20 years,” said Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Senior Advisor for Special Political Affairs, US Mission to the UN.
“The Taliban must hear from the international community that we will not accept a military takeover of Afghanistan or a return of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, he said. Speaking at the Security Council meeting on Afghanistan convened under India’s current presidency of the 15-nation UN body, DeLaurentis said, “Taliban will be isolated and an international pariah if they choose that path, which would most certainly push the country to further violence and destruction.
He asserted that there is no military solution in Afghanistan and a negotiated, inclusive political settlement through an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process is the only way forward for lasting peace and stability in the country. DeLaurentis reiterated Washington’s full support for an inclusive Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process with full and meaningful participation of women that leads to a just and durable political settlement.
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