In another humiliating turn of events for President Biden, the Taliban has made clear when the U.S. must be out of Afghanistan amid the Biden administration's faltering response to the fighters' rapid takeover — and threatened "consequences" for any attempt to maintain control of Hamid Karzai International Airport after August 31st.
"It's a red line," a Taliban spokesperson told Sky News in an interview published Monday. "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."
UPDATE: The Taliban have issued a red line to Joe Biden: Complete the evacuations by August 31 or face "consequences."
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) August 23, 2021
"If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations - the answer is no... Or there would be consequences," the Taliban spokesperson explained. If Biden tries to maintain a presence to secure and operate the Kabul airport beyond August 31st, such a move "will create mistrust between us," says the Taliban. "If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction," threatened the Taliban spokesperson.
The fact that the Taliban is issuing red line warnings to the President of the United States is a humiliating consequence of relying on the group, something Biden has done repeatedly as Afghanistan fell into chaos, including to negotiate assurances of safe passage for Americans through Taliban checkpoints. As Pentagon officials confirmed, Americans and Afghans have been beaten at Taliban checkpoints despite agreements the Biden administration made with the Taliban.
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The need for a deadline extension has become increasingly urgent to many in the United States as President Biden — along with State Department and Pentagon leadership — have been unable to say both how many Americans remain trapped behind Taliban lines and how many Americans have so far been evacuated. Add in special immigrant visa applicants and other at-risk Afghans who helped the United States over its two decades of involvement in Afghanistan and there are still a lot of people who need to get past Taliban checkpoints and onto U.S. airlift flights in the next week.
The evident lack of data on how many people are left to evacuate means that, conveniently, if Biden abides by the current August 31st deadline that's just over a week away, there won't be an exact number of Americans (and others) left behind.
In the first of two Pentagon press briefings held on Monday, Press Secretary John Kirby defiantly said that the Pentagon was focused on getting as many people out of Afghanistan as possible by the current August 31st deadline, claiming that the Pentagon is "just not at that point" of discussing a deadline extension with President Biden "right now."
Time may have run out to discuss a potential extension of the U.S. withdrawal via negotiations with the Taliban, and instead it may be time to discuss how Taliban aggression will be handled past August 31st if fighters follow through with their leadership's "red line" threat.
During Monday's White House press briefing that was more an attempt at damage control than an explanation of what's really going on, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan again reiterated the United States was talking with the Taliban every day but refused to comment on their threat of "consequences" should the U.S. stay past August 31st.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says “we are in talks with the Taliban on a daily basis,” but won’t comment on Taliban’s August 31st “red line” for troop withdrawal. pic.twitter.com/X52lTkhh7F
— The Recount (@therecount) August 23, 2021
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