Taliban Rejects Evacuation Extension Says No More Afghans will leave the Country
The Taliban said on Tuesday that they were “not allowing the evacuation of Afghans anymore” and warned that the US must stick to next week’s deadline to pull out, as a frantic Western evacuation operation at Kabul airport picked up the pace.
Gathogo Wanjiru 
The announcement came as US President Joe Biden made it clear he aims to stick with his August 31 deadline to withdraw soldiers from Afghanistan as long as the Taliban does not disrupt ongoing evacuation operations or airport access.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told a press conference on Tuesday that while foreign nationals could continue traveling to the airport, the huge crowds of Afghans that have gathered there in recent days should return home and would not face reprisals from the country’s new rulers.
“The road, which goes to the airport, is blocked. Afghans cannot take that road to go to the airport, but foreign nationals are allowed to take that road to the airport,” Mujahid said.
“We are not allowing the evacuation of Afghans anymore and we are not happy with it either,” he added.
The doctors and academics of Afghanistan “should not leave this country, they should work in their own specialist areas,” Mujahid added. “They should not go to other countries, to those Western countries.”
Asked about the statement from the Taliban, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that should not impact Afghans who were prioritized by the US to leave the country. “No. That is not how you should read it,” Psaki said.
“Our expectation, which we have also conveyed to the Taliban, is that they should be able to get to the airport,” she later added.
Many of those fleeing the country since the Taliban took over have been educated people, especially women. The last time the Taliban ruled, women were banned from working and forbidden to attend schools and universities.
