President Biden says U.S. troops are on pace to leave Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline, despite pressure from allies in the G7 to stay longer to help more people flee the country. The United States has so far helped evacuate over 82,000 people from the Kabul airport, where there have been 19,000 evacuations in the past 24 hours. President Biden spoke on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden: “We are currently on a pace to finish by August the 31st. The sooner we can finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops. But the completion by August 31st depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport.”
Amnesty International criticized Biden’s decision to halt evacuations in the coming days. The head of Amnesty’s U.S. office, Paul O’Brien, said, “The U.S. government should continue to negotiate to proceed with evacuations for as long as necessary to evacuate all of the country’s most vulnerable.”