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Biden pledges continued evacuation support

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US President Joe Biden said late Sunday Washington has an unwavering commitment to getting American citizens and at-risk Afghans out of Afghanistan.

Biden said the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and his administration was concerned about the threat from Islamic State (Daesh) in Afghanistan.

“Let me be clear, the evacuation of thousands from Kabul is going to be hard and painful” and would have been “no matter when it began,” Biden said in a briefing at the White House.

“We have a long way to go and a lot could still go wrong.”

Biden said he had directed the State Department to contact Americans stranded in Afghanistan by phone, email and other means, and the United States had a plan to move them to the airport.

“We’re executing a plan to move groups of these Americans to safety and effectively move them to the airport compound. For security reasons, I’m not going to go into detail … but I will say again today what I’ve said before: Any American who wants to get home will get home.”

Afghan allies of the West and vulnerable Afghans such as women activists and journalists would be helped too, he said.

Asked by a reporter whether the United States would extend an Aug. 31 deadline for evacuations, Biden replied: “Our hope is we will not have to extend but there are going to be discussions I suspect on how far along we are in the process.”

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin on Sunday rejected the idea of sending evacuees to Russia-allied countries to the north of Afghanistan, saying he did not want “militants showing up here under cover of refugees”, Russian news agencies reported.

Putin criticized the idea of some Western countries relocating refugees from Afghanistan to neighboring Central Asian countries while their visas to the United States and Europe are being processed.

“Does that mean that they can be sent without visas to those countries, to our neighbours, while they themselves (the West) don’t want to take them without visas?” TASS news agency quoted Putin as telling leaders of the ruling United Russia party.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen meanwhile said from Doha that all foreign troops should leave Afghanistan by the end of August, Deutsche Welle reported.

Shaheen has said that the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan by the end of August is the “red line” of the Taliban, and the group sees the extension as a “continuation of the occupation of the country.”

Shaheen added that there was no reason to extend the deadline. Shaheen stressed that the extension of the US and other countries’ military presence in Afghanistan is fueling distrust.

According to Deutsche Welle while setting an ultimatum for the withdrawal of foreign troops, he said that extending the deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan would face a “reaction” from the Taliban.

Shaheen also said that citizens who had gathered at Kabul airport wanted to leave the country to escape poverty, citing fear of the Taliban as an excuse.

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Russia’s Supreme Court suspends ban on Islamic Emirate

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Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to suspend the Islamic Emirate’s designation as a banned organization in Russia, following a formal request from the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Although the IEA remains officially designated as a terrorist organization in Russia, the court’s ruling effectively freezes that classification, opening the door to broader political engagement.

The IEA, however, continues to be subject to United Nations sanctions.

According to Russian media reports, a representative of the IEA attended the closed-door court session, during which the court reviewed the prosecutor’s petition seeking to suspend the ban.

“The suspension follows an administrative lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation,” Supreme Court Judge Oleg Nefyodov said while reading the ruling, according to local media.

The session was held behind closed doors, and Russian authorities have not yet publicly commented on the potential political implications of the move.

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Qatar’s minister of state holds phone call with acting FM Muttaqi

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Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, held a telephone conversation with Amir Khan Muttaqi, acting foreign minister of Afghanistan on Thursday where they discussed bilateral issues.

Zia Ahmad Takal, head of public relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on Thursday that the two sides discussed enhancing diplomatic relations, expanding cooperation between the two countries, and Muttaqi’s upcoming visit to Doha.

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WATCH: Authorities scramble to accommodate refugee influx at Afghanistan border

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As thousands of refugees cross back into Afghanistan amid Pakistan’s campaign to forcibly expel over 1 million Afghans, local officials scramble to accommodate the influx which also means areas of landmines need to be cleared around the Torkham border area in order to establish more tented camps.

The mines and other unexploded ordnance are remnants of Afghanistan’s 20 year war that ended with the collapse of the former US-backed government in August 2021.

Government officials who visited Torkham this week say they are ready to cooperate with returning refugees.

Nooruddin Torabi, the head of the National Disaster Preparedness Agency, visited Torkham on Tuesday. He stressed the need to clear the area of mines and unexploded ordnance.

Torabi also said that another transit camp would be established to temporarily accommodate the returnees.

Refugees however have slammed the Pakistan government for the way they have handled this. Many say they are now homeless after having left everything behind, including houses, businesses and possessions. In addition to this, a large percentage of them have nowhere to go after having lived in Pakistan for decades.

Afghans have been fleeing to Pakistan for over 40 years – since the invasion of the old Soviet Union in December 1978.

Islamic Relief reported this week that tens of thousands of Afghans are facing dire conditions in makeshift camps after crossing the border from Pakistan.

According to the organization, an assessment team that visited Torkham found that many refugees are arriving in Afghanistan without any shelter, food, cash or water. These families were forced to leave possessions – including animals and household items.

People arrive in droves, covered in dust, crammed onto trucks, and face a barren border with no basic services in sight. The first thing that greets them is a harsh, wind storm swirling with dust.

This influx comes amid an economic crisis in the country and as global cuts to humanitarian funding have forced many essential services in Afghanistan to close, including health facilities and food distributions.

Many of the new arrivals have lived in Pakistan for decades after seeking refuge there, fleeing conflicts and instability in their homeland. They include children who were born in Pakistan and have never been to Afghanistan. Many others no longer have close family members in

Afghanistan or have not visited for many years. They are not truly ‘returning home’ as they hardly know Afghanistan and have no homes or livelihoods to kickstart their lives here.

Some of the arrivals do not even speak an Afghan language and many returnees lack proper identification documents.

The interim Afghan government has pledged to take care of refugees returning to Afghanistan and humanitarian organizations are ramping up efforts to help these refugees.

Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by the Pakistani authorities to leave the country, in the second phase of efforts to remove Afghans. More than 1.3 million Afghans who hold Proof of Registration cards from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have also been told to move outside the capital Islamabad and the neighbouring city of Rawalpindi

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