Baghdad French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced today, Thursday, that Paris will no longer be able to evacuate people from Afghanistan as of Friday evening.
“We will continue (the evacuation) until tomorrow evening,” Jan Castex said, adding that “we will no longer be able to carry out evacuations from Kabul airport after this period.”
A government source explained, “This date was imposed by the Americans in light of the completion of the withdrawal of their forces that take charge of the security of Kabul Airport from Afghanistan by August 31. Therefore, the evacuation of Afghan citizens will continue until Thursday evening and possibly Friday morning, which was previously announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.”
The government source said that “France will make maximum efforts to keep this device as long as possible” to withdraw it “a few hours” before the departure of the military and the embassy staff that supervises the operations”.
On Thursday, Castex said that “about 2,500 people” have been evacuated since the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, including French nationals, as well as, in particular, “Afghans who helped in one way or another to the army, families, artists and journalists.”
For its part, the Netherlands announced that it would halt evacuations from Kabul airport on Thursday, after the US forces asked it to leave the airport before its expected withdrawal from it.
The foreign and defense ministers said in a letter to parliament that “the Netherlands was informed today from the United States that it must leave and will probably organize the last flights later in the day.”
The last flights Thursday will transport Dutch embassy staff and a military mission to Kabul. According to the letter, “every effort has been made to help hundreds of people who are currently inside the airport to board the flights scheduled for today.”
Source: National Iraqi News Agency