Blinken acknowledges that Taliban are blocking Afghanistan rescue flights

Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that Taliban fighters are holding back charter flights intended to ferry US citizens and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan on Wednesday — contradicting his comments from a day before when he denied that the extremist group was holding Americans hostage.

“As of now, the Taliban are not permitting the charter flights to depart. They claim that some of the passengers do not have the required documentation,” Blinken told reporters at the US air base in Ramstein, Germany.

“While there are limits to what we can do without personnel on the ground, without an airport with normal security procedures in place, we are working to do everything in our power to support those flights, and to get them off the ground,” Blinken said.

He said the administration is working with non-governmental organizations and advocates to coordinate their efforts and attempting to arrange landing rights in third party countries. 

“Those flights need to move. I pointed out some of the complications that are there, but those flights need to move,” he said. 

The Biden administration has come under criticism for not doing more to pressure the Taliban to allow flights to leave amid reports that as many as six planes were sitting on the tarmac at the Mazar-i-Sharif airport waiting clearance to depart.

Blinken, speaking at Ramstein during a press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, said the international community is putting immense pressure on the Taliban to allow the evacuations flights to resume. 

“In the meantime, an immediate way the Taliban can demonstrate its willingness to respect freedom of movement is by allowing the departure of charter flights with properly documented passengers,” he said.

“I think all of you know there are a number of such flights that have been waiting in Mazar-i-Sharif. And this is a point that we’ve made crystal-clear in recent engagements with the Taliban and we encourage others to do the same,” he said. 

The story from the Biden administration on those flights seems to change every day, with no resolution.

On Tuesday, Blinken said there was a “relatively” small number of Americans in Afghanistan and blamed the holdup on paperwork snafus, which was affirmed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

“We are not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostage life situation in Mazar-i-Sharif,” Blinken said ​during a press conference in Doha​, Qatar, where he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were holding meetings with leaders of the Gulf state.

“We’ve been able to identify a relatively small number of Americans who we believe are seeking to depart from Mazar-i-Sharif with their families. We have been assured, again, that all American citizens and Afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be allowed to leave,” Blinken said.

“And again, we intend to hold the Taliban to that,” he ​said.

The US doesn’t have any troops or diplomats on the ground in Afghanistan following the completion of the military pullout at the end of August, leaving the Biden administration with little leverage over the Taliban other than threats of being ostracized from the international community.

The issue was a hot topic at the White House briefing, where press secretary Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy whose fault it was that no troops remained in the country — a question that sparked a tense exchange. 

“I don’t think this is about fault here. I think what people want to understand is what we’re doing to help address it. There’s a handful of Americans – and I’m sure you’re not suggesting we should have flights with hundreds of people we don’t know who they are where there’s no security protocols,” Psaki said. 

“There’s a handful of Americans who we are also in touch with, and we are working to help get evacuated from Afghanistan,” she continued, adding that decisions made by the federal government are not as simple as yes or no. 

“What we’re evaluating and looking at is how to keep people on our military bases safe, while also getting these US citizens, dual citizens, people who are prepared to leave Afghanistan able to leave. At the same time, we’re not going to allow flights that have hundreds of people who we don’t know who they are, who haven’t been through security protocols, where we haven’t seen the manifest to land on US military bases,” she said. 

Doocy then pointed out that there are more terrorists wanted by the FBI in the newly formed Afghan government than there are women and questioned whether the president saw that as a foreign policy success. 

“Well, first of all, no one in this administration, not the president, nor anyone on the national security team, would suggest that the Taliban are respected and valued members of the global community. They have not earned that in any way,” Psaki said.

She went on to say that the administration has not said it would recognize the government and is “engaging” with the government because it controls Afghanistan to get American citizens and at-risk Afghans out of the country. 

But Doocy said the new acting Afghan interior minister is Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI’s most wanted list and has a $5 million bounty on his head for carrying out a bombing that killed six people, including an American, and asked why the US government is even negotiating with the government. 

“Should we not talk to the people who are overseeing Afghanistan and just leave it and not get the rest of the American citizens out.

“What are we waiting for them to do?” Doocy asked, inquiring whether the US is waiting to recognize the government.

“As we’ve said many times, the international community is watching, the United States is watching. It’s whether they let people depart the country who wants to depart, whether they treat women across the country as they have committed to treat them, and how they behave and operate,” Psaki said. 

“And, therefore, we’re not moving toward recognition. At the same time, we’re dealing with a reality world here. We have to engage in order to get American citizens, and others out of the country,” she said.

Blinken warned the Taliban to release the flights, allow humanitarian aid to flow into the country and keep the promise not to allow terrorist groups to use Afghanistan as a base. 

“All three of these core objectives will require engagement with the Taliban,” he said.  

“While the Taliban badly wants or professes to want international legitimacy and support, that legitimacy and support has to be earned by their actions. And in our judgment, it cannot be earned quickly, it cannot be earned by words alone, or even by some positive first steps, welcome as those may be. It really has to be demonstrated over time,” Blinken added.