8.23am EDT
08:23
Evacuation effort ‘down to hours, not weeks’ – defence secretary
Earlier, the defence secretary Ben Wallace warned the mission was “down to hours now, not weeks” and the UK must “exploit every minute” to get people out of Kabul as the window for evacuation narrows.
He told the BBC that when the US withdraws it’s 6,000-strong presence on the ground at Kabul airport, “that will take away the framework that has allowed us to withdraw” and UK forces will have to also go.
I don’t think there is any likelihood of staying on after the United States. Even if their timetable extends, even by a day or two, then that will give us a day or two more to evacuate people, because we really down to hours now, not weeks, and we have to make sure we exploit every minute to get people out.
Updated
at 8.25am EDT
8.17am EDT
08:17
No 10 also said it was recognised that it would be “extremely challenging” for Afghans who are not in Kabul to get to the airport to evacuate.
Thousands of Afghans and foreign nationals are scrambling to board flights to get out of the country.
The prime minister’s spokesman said:
We’re fully conscious of that. This is the first phase of our operation, evacuating largely British nationals and those under the ARAP (Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy) scheme, out in the time that we have.
We will then move to the next phase, whereby we’ll be able to resettle [people] over the coming days, weeks and months, and indeed years, as we did with the Syrian scheme.
Now I appreciate that does, again … it presents challenges for those wishing to leave Afghanistan who might not be based in Kabul, who might have to get to neighbouring countries, for example.
We will continue to provide support through the Foreign Office, there’s contacts both for those within Afghanistan and those outside of Afghanistan who want information about family members they may have remaining. So, we will continue to do everything possible.
Updated
at 8.31am EDT
8.12am EDT
08:12
Hello and welcome to our live blog on the latest developments from Afghanistan, where the Taliban has said it will not agree to an extension of the 31 August deadline for the current evacuation mission.
The 31st was “a red line”, Suhail Shaheen, a member of the delegation in Doha, told Sky News. He said the US president Joe Biden had said troops would be out by that date, and extending it meant “extending occupation”. He warned of “consequences” if that were to change.
He said:
It’s a red line. 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.
If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations – the answer is no. Or there would be consequences.
It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction.
It comes as the British prime minister Boris Johnson is set to use the upcoming G7 meeting on Tuesday to plead with Biden to delay the withdrawal of US forces beyond that date to allow more people to flee the country.
No 10 said “discussions on the ground” had been held with the Taliban over extending the deadline evacuations, but while no firm date had been set officials were still working towards a deadline of the end of the month.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said:
Given the Americans are providing the vast bulk of security and facilitating the functioning of the airport in Kabul, and given we have previously spoken to other Nato countries about staying and that didn’t prove to be a viable option, we are going to need to leave the airport at the same time as the Americans.
He added that although the government was working towards a 31 August deadline:
No firm date has been set in terms of when our evacuation procedure ends.
The spokesman said the evacuation would continue as long as it was safe to do so.
I’ve seen the reports. I don’t think we’ve had any direct communication to that end. We will continue to run our evacuation process as long as the security situation allows.
As always, please feel free to get in touch with me as I work with thoughts on what we should be covering here.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Updated
at 8.27am EDT
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish