G7 demands Taliban to extend evacuation beyond 31 August

Since the Taliban took Kabul, the priority of all countries with nationals in Afghanistan has been to evacuate them as soon as possible. However, the chaotic situation both throughout the city and, above all, at the capital's airport, has made it very difficult to evacuate foreigners in Afghanistan and Afghans themselves, who are trying to leave the country at all costs, even clinging to planes that were about to take off.

So far, despite the complications involved in getting people out of the country, there had been a degree of calm - within the bounds of possibility in a situation of this calibre - as the Taliban had assured that they would not interfere in the evacuation of embassy staff, translators and other diplomatic officials. However, the news that has set alarm bells ringing is that all evacuations will be halted as of 31 August. From then on, the Taliban will not allow evacuation efforts to continue as they have been doing for the past few days. This is the main reason why an emergency G7 meeting was held today, Tuesday, to discuss this issue, as well as whether or not to recognise the new regime imposed by the Taliban.

A few hours before the summit, a meeting took place that will undoubtedly have played an important role in many of the decisions announced today. According to an exclusive report in the Washington Post, CIA Director William J. Burns met secretly with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the leader of the Taliban. Although the CIA itself has refused to make any statements to the media on the matter, the article stated that the issue of the deadline for the withdrawal of troops was "probably" discussed, a fundamental issue for the meeting of the G7 countries, which now leaves a confrontation that must be resolved within a maximum period of one week. 

The G7 countries, chaired by the UK, have pressured Joe Biden to change his initial idea of ending the evacuations by 31 August, a date considered insufficient from the outset by many Western countries. The G7 countries will demand that the Taliban be allowed to evacuate beyond this date, which at first seemed immovable. Even before the meeting, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on his Twitter account that "it is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years", which, according to them, would be impossible with a deadline of the last day of this month.

The virtual meeting of the G7 countries ended with the publication of a communiqué that read: "The legitimacy of any future government depends on its approach to fulfilling its international obligations and commitments to ensure a stable Afghanistan". In other words, the new Taliban government is not officially recognised, as Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, has also stated. Moreover, the Taliban had pre-empted the summit that has just taken place and reaffirmed their intention not to allow the evacuation to continue beyond the date already set at 31 August, which clashes head-on with the G7 resolution.