Joe Biden still hopes evacuations will end before August 31

As the departure of foreigners and Afghan civilians continues in Kabul under high tensionPresident Joe Biden said Sunday, August 22, that he still hopes the evacuations will be completed before August 31, the date his government has set for the complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

‘Hopefully we won’t have to extend’, the US President said, while leaving the door open for an extension. “There will be discussions, I think.”

“We’ll see what we can do.”He answered a reporter’s question what he would do if the allied nations asked for the United States to stay in place for a longer period.

The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, ruled on Saturday ” impossible “ To evacuate all Afghan collaborators with Western powers before August 31. Several human rights organizations have also called for Joe Biden to extend the deadline for US withdrawal.

‘It’s an incredible process’

The White House tenant said Sunday that about 28,000 people have been evacuated since August 14. ‘It’s an incredible process’, confirmed. Saturday, in an interview with ABC, the US President I may know that the United States planned to evacuate all Americans (between 10,000 and 15,000 people, according to some estimates) and hoped to be able to do the same with Afghan allies and their families (between 50,000 and 65,000 people).

The United States also arranged for many of the evacuees to be moved to their military base in Ramstein, Germany, as well as evacuations to countries in the region such as Qatar. So far, about 5,000 people, Americans and Afghans, evacuees from Kabul, have disembarked at the base in Ramstein.

“We are working hard and as quickly as possible to evacuate people”He added, confirming that these evacuations would have taken place “difficult and painful” Even if they have started ” A month ago “.

A week after the Taliban seized power, thousands of people are still trying to flee the country on Sunday, and chaos still reigns at Kabul airport. “We’ve made a number of changes, including expanding access around the airport and the security zone”Joe Biden said without going into further details.