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US working to make charter flights from Afghanistan more routine: Report
The United States has no plans to resume military-led evacuation flights from Afghanistan, but is working to ensure that the existing charter flights become more frequent, Reuters reported on Thursday.
“The idea that we’re restarting evacuation flights, à la what we had prior to Aug. 31, is not accurate,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a briefing. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Washington would restart evacuation flights before the end of the year, citing an unidentified State Department official.
“The charter flights have been routine,” Price said. “Our goal is to make them even more routine to lend a degree of automaticity to these operations so that we can facilitate the departure of Americans, of lawful permanent residents and others.”
President Joe Biden and others in his administration have vowed to continue efforts to get them out.
A few hundred people have been evacuated on charter flights, organized by groups of veterans, and some facilitated by the United States. Washington has also assisted some people to depart Afghanistan via overland routes.
Price added that since Aug. 31, the United States has facilitated the departure of 129 U.S. citizens and 115 lawful permanent residents.
“Our goal is to see to it that working with our partners that these flights become even more of a regular occurrence,” he said.
Pakistan says communities living along the Afghanistan-Pakistan Durand Line want peace and stability, despite ongoing security concerns in the region.
Speaking during a weekly media briefing, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said there are no major issues between the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, adding that residents on both sides of the Durand Line want peaceful relations and greater regional stability.
However, Andrabi claimed that terrorism originating from Afghan territory continues to undermine peace efforts.
He said Islamabad believes militant activity crossing from Afghanistan remains a significant obstacle to improving regional security and bilateral ties.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has repeatedly rejected such allegations, maintaining that no militant group is allowed to use Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries.
Andrabi also said Pakistan remains diplomatically engaged on regional matters involving Afghanistan, Iran, India, and Somalia, stressing that dialogue and diplomacy remain Islamabad’s preferred means of resolving disputes.
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Afghanistan-Gambia ties discussed during Doha meeting
Both sides also exchanged views on strengthening diplomatic engagement and exploring future economic cooperation.
Suhail Shaheen, head of the Islamic Emirate’s embassy in Doha, has met with Omar Jah, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of The Gambia to Qatar, to discuss bilateral relations and areas of mutual interest.
According to a statement from the Afghan embassy in Doha, Jah also oversees Gambian diplomatic affairs related to Afghanistan.
The meeting focused on Afghanistan-Gambia relations, the current security situation in Afghanistan, and potential investment opportunities in the country.
Both sides also exchanged views on strengthening diplomatic engagement and exploring future economic cooperation.
Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly and head of the Pakhtunkhwa Awami National Party, has said that if capable statesmen had been in power, people living on both sides of the Durand Line could have moved freely across the line.
Speaking during a podcast interview, Achakzai said that countries with histories of major conflict, including Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom, now maintain far more open borders despite past wars. He said that in many such regions, only a “paper line” remains, with limited border restrictions.
Drawing comparisons with the disputed Durand Line boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Achakzai argued that a similar arrangement could have been possible in South Asia.
“What is the problem here? A Punjabi could dance in Kandahar and a Pashtun could come here. Even if we are not formally one country, we could have effectively functioned like one,” he said.
The Pakistani politician also referred to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the later U.S.-led intervention, saying Afghanistan has the right to seek war reparations from those countries to support reconstruction efforts.
Achakzai further criticised the treatment of Pashtuns in Pakistan, alleging that individuals in cities including Lahore and Karachi have faced detention and deportation.
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