BREAKING NEWS: CIA Director William Burns held a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar on Monday as Biden speeds up evacuations before the insurgents 'red line' August 31 deadline
Joe Biden's CIA Director William Burns went to Kabul on Monday for a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, U.S. officials familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
The discussions, the Tuesday report notes, likely involved the August 31 deadline for all U.S. military presence to be out of Afghanistan – including ending the evacuation of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.
Burns was dispatched to the capital city of Afghanistan as the administration continues to grapple with a chaotic scene at the airport and struggles to evacuate Americans from Kabul.
Biden said last week that he will keep U.S. forces in Afghanistan past the impending deadline for complete withdrawal if necessary to continue evacuating as many Americans as possible.
'If there's American citizens left, we're going to stay until we get them all out,' Biden told ABC News in an interview taped at the White House Wednesday.
CIA Director William Burns (left) went to Kabul on Monday for a secret meeting with the Taliban's de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar (right)
Likely discussed at the meeting Monday was the August 31 deadline for total troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. President Joe Biden said U.S. military would stay in Afghanistan past the deadline if needed to get Americans out
Taliban leaders, however, have warned of 'consequences' if the U.S. doesn't keep to its August 31 deadline.
Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban delegation in Qatar's capital city Doha said Monday U.S. military continuing to evacuate past this month would amount to 'extending occupation' and that is 'a red line'.
The president will join other G7 leaders on a virtual call Tuesday morning for an emergency meeting on Afghanistan after NATO begged Biden to re-think his plan to avert a humanitarian disaster.
He will then provide an update in remarks Tuesday afternoon.
The U.S. has ramped up airlifts to evacuate more than 17,000 people in a day and Biden finally ordered troops to rescue Americans outside the airport in a race against time before the withdrawal deadline.
Washington pulled off its biggest haul of evacuations since the crisis started over the last 24 hours to early Tuesday morning, with 37 military jets evacuating 21,600 people from Kabul, the White House announced.
'Since August 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of approximately 58,700 people. Since the end of July, we have re-located approximately 63,900 people,' a White House official said.
From Sunday to early Monday morning, 28 military jets rescued around 10,400 people.
Meanwhile, U.S. Special Operations rescued 16 Americans from an unspecified location around two hours outside Kabul. The Pentagon revealed it was carried out by helicopter without disclosing further details.
It comes after it emerged that the President told top commanders last week that he was wary of deploying soldiers outside the airport because he didn't want a Black Hawk Down-style incident. Eighteen Americans were killed when their helicopters were shot down over Mogadishu in 1993 during the Somali Civil War.
Rescue efforts became increasingly urgent on Tuesday as Spain warned it would have to leave people behind and France said it would stop airlifts on Thursday - five days before the deadline.
The airport has become a relative safe haven but accessing it has proven near impossible due to Taliban checkpoints and chaos among the crowds outside the perimeter.
U.S. soldiers guard Kabul airport on Tuesday as thousands of desperate Afghans crowd at the gates in the hopes of fleeing the Taliban
A military plane takes off from the airport on Monday. 28 military jets rescued 10,400 people in the 24 hours to early Monday. Another 15 C-17 flights over the next 12 hours brought out another 6,660.
While Biden and his administration have said the Taliban has promised safe passage to the airport for American citizens, there are reports that Americans are being assaulted as they try to reach Hamid Karzai International.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin admitted over the weekend that American citizens still trapped in Kabul are being beaten by these Islamic militant fighters.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said negotiations with the Taliban are continuing as the administration looks for additional ways to safely move more Americans and others into the Kabul airport.
'We are in talks with the Taliban on a daily basis through both political and security channels,' he said.
After more than a week of evacuations plagued by major obstacles, including Taliban forces and crushing crowds that are making approaching the airport difficult and dangerous, the number of people flown out met - and exceeded - U.S. projections for the first time.
The count on Monday was more than twice the 3,900 flown out in the previous 24 hours on U.S. military planes.
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