Three US officials revealed that America is negotiating with the Taliban and trying to obtain assurances that the movement will not attack the US embassy in Kabul, if the Taliban takes control of the country’s government.
The efforts led by Zalmay Khalilzad seek, The top US envoy in talks with the Taliban, to avoid the complete evacuation of the embassy amid the rapid seizure of Afghan cities by the Taliban, according to the American newspaper “New York Times”. Her country had an unspecified number of 1,400 Americans stationed at the embassy and reduced the number to what IAEA spokesman Ned Price described as the “essential diplomatic presence” in Kabul.
(The embassy also urged Americans who are not employed by the US government to leave Afghanistan immediately on commercial flights.
The Taliban advance has put embassies in Kabul on high alert to counter the escalation of violence and closed consulates and other diplomatic missions in Kabul. The country is its gates.
Diplomats are trying to Americans can now determine how long they might need to evacuate the embassy entirely if the Taliban prove intent on advancing.
Five current and former officials described the mood inside the embassy as increasingly tense and anxious. Diplomats at the State Department in Washington noted a gloom over the specter of its closure, nearly 20 years after US Marines reclaimed the burning building in December 2001. Many people have revived a comparison that everyone wanted to avoid, which is the fall of Vietnam’s Saigon in 1975 when Americans stationed at the American Embassy were evacuated from a rooftop by helicopter.
Khalilzad hopes to convince Taliban leaders that the embassy must remain open and secure, if the movement hopes to receive US financial and other assistance as part of a future Afghan government. The Taliban leadership has said it wants to be seen as a legitimate proxy for the country and is seeking relationships with other world powers, including Russia and China, in an effort to receive economic support. Two officials confirmed Khalilzad’s previously unannounced efforts. A third official said, on Thursday, that the Taliban would lose any legitimacy, and therefore foreign assistance, if they attacked Kabul or brought down the Afghan government by force. The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said, on Thursday, that Berlin would not provide any financial support.
Officials also said the Biden administration was concerned that the US embassy evacuation could precipitate the departure of other diplomatic missions and international support and in turn lead to the collapse of the Afghan government. )
