Taliban spokesperson on Afghans leaving: 'We are not even happy about it'
“The Afghans leaving, we are not going to allow that, and we are not even happy about it,” spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said during a press conference, according to
CNN.
He said the doctors and academics “should not leave this country, they should work in their own specialists.”
“They should not go to other countries, to those Western countries," he added.
The comments from Mujahid come as the Biden administration is ramping up efforts to evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghan allies as the security situation deteriorates. The Taliban, however, is now saying that while it is fine for the U.S. military to pull Americans from the region, they will not allow an exodus of Afghan citizens.
“We are not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave,” Mujahid told reporters, according to
CNBC.
He also doubled down on the Taliban’s previous statement that it will not allow
President Biden to
extend a self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline for having all U.S. troops out of the country. Biden had been considering pushing back the deadline for evacuation purposes, but announced on Tuesday to
keep the timetable as is.
“[The Americans] have the opportunity, they have all the resources, they can take all the people that belong to them. But we are not going to allow Afghans to leave and we will not extend the deadline,” Mujahid said, according to CNBC.
He said evacuations that occur after the Aug. 31 deadline would be a “violation” of the administration’s promise to complete its withdrawal mission before September.
Mujahid added that Afghan citizens are not permitted to make their way to the airport.
“The way to the airport has been closed now. Afghans are not allowed to go there now. Foreigners are allowed to go but we have stopped Afghan nationals to go because the crowd is more, there is danger that people will lose their lives, there might be a stampede,” Mujahid said.
A Taliban spokesman on Tuesday warned Afghan citizens against leaving the country amid U.S. plans to withdraw all troops from the war-torn country.“The Afghans leaving, we are not going to allow th…
thehill.com