Germany sits down with the Taliban: Group say they discussed ‘mutual understanding’ and keeping Kabul airport open with envoy – the most senior Western official to meet them since they seized Kabul
- The Taliban has claimed the German Envoy to Afghanistan met with the Islamists on Thursday night
- Spokesman said Markus Potzel met with a high-ranking Taliban official to discuss the crisis
- There are fears in Berlin that German nationals could be taken hostage and used as leverage for negotiations
- The fall of Kabul and the Taliban takeover of the country has sparked a major diplomatic crisis
The Taliban has claimed the German Envoy to Afghanistan met with the Islamists on Thursday night and discussed keeping Kabul airport open as well as ‘the importance and necessity of positive interaction and mutual understanding’ with the new regime.
Spokesman Mohammad Naeem said Markus Potzel, Germany’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, met with a high-ranking Taliban official to discuss the crisis – making him the most senior Western official to have engaged in face-to-face talks since the takeover.
There are apparently mounting fears in Berlin that German nationals trapped in Afghanistan could be taken hostage and used as leverage for negotiations in Doha as the Islamists consolidate their astonishing seizure of power, sources told the Bild newspaper.
The fall of Kabul and the Taliban takeover of the country has sparked a frantic global effort to evacuate as many people as possible. It has also exposed fissures within the international community, with Western powers relucant to formally recognising the new terror regime while China, Pakistan and Russia keep diplomatic relations with the terrorist organisation open.
Naeem said on Twitter: ‘This evening, a meeting was held between Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and his accompanying delegation, and Markus Potzel, German Envoy to Afghanistan.
‘During the meeting, the current situation in Afghanistan, current developments, and the future situation were discussed. The German Envoy promised to continue and expand his humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The meeting also discussed the importance and necessity of positive interaction and mutual understanding with the international community and keeping Kabul Airport active.’
G7 countries have expressed concern about the ‘significant loss of life and internal displacement in Afghanistan’, and urged the Taliban to protect civilians amid reports of violence against them, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement on Thursday night.
Mr Raab – who is facing calls to resign after failing to make a crucial phone call to protect Afghan interpreters while he was on a luxury holiday last week – added that Western powers were doing ‘everything possible’ to evacuate trapped foreign nationals and locals.
Amid reports that evacuation flights had left with only a handful of people on board, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace insisted that Britain has not flown any empty planes out of Kabul despite carnage at the airport and fears the Taliban are blocking access.
He told Times Radio: ‘Our people are getting through, we haven’t sent a single empty plane home. And I don’t think many other nations have. I can’t speak for other nations, obviously, but fundamentally, the key here is when we have a plane if we have a single empty seat, we will offer it to other nations.
‘We’ve taken out interpreters who work for Nato, for example, we’ve taken out fellow European or other… we took some Japanese people out recently who were in need, so we will use every space on our planes possible.’
In other developments:
- Joe Biden said he can’t ‘recall’ if he was warned to maintain a troop presence in Afghanistan;
- The US President insisted ‘no one is being killed’ during the chaos at the Kabul airport;
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed an armed resistance to the Taliban, which includes SAS-trained forces, in Afghanistan is forming in the Panjshir Valley;
- Afghanistan’s biggest female pop star has escaped on a US flight out of Kabul as fears grow for women in the country after the Taliban’s vow to impose Sharia;
- Taliban militants are intensifying their hunt for people who worked with UK, US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, according to a confidential report to the UN;
- The British Foreign Office issued a slew of action shots of Dominic Raab hard at work as he faced fury for failing to make a crucial phone call about Afghanistan while he was on holiday;
- Women have led anti-Taliban protesters in Afghanistan today as they waved national flags in defiance of the Islamists to mark their country’s independence day.
Markus Potzel, Germany’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace after Ashraf Ghani fled the country
Civilians prepare to board a plane during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport
Satellite images have revealed the extent of the crisis at Kabul airport, with cars crammed up against the southern civilian entrance and northern military entrance that can be seen from satellites
Taliban fighters have now encircled the airport in Kabul and are deciding who gets to come in and who has to stay out. Checkpoints have been set up on both the civilian south side of the airport and the military north side, with gunshots fired in both locations to keep crowds back
Western nations have been accused of leaving people behind as evacuation flights take off from Kabul half-empty. Pictured are Afghan women and children disembarking a Spanish flight that had 50 people on board, despite having room for over 100
Anwari was among young Afghan men were seen clambering onto the USAF jet as it took off from Kabul on Monday. At least three of them died, two teenage brothers by falling from the wheels and Anwari was found dead in the wheel well
Babies were thrown over barbed wire towards troops at Kabul airport in a desperate bid to get them out of the country as the west’s ignominious exit from Afghanistan continued
Those on the ground say Taliban guards have little idea who to let inside the airport, while dishing out beatings, lashings and firing shots seemingly at random – causing further panic and chaos
The Foreign Office issued a slew of action shots of Dominic Raab hard at work today as he faced fury for failing to make a crucial phone call about Afghanistan while he was on a luxury holiday last week.
Mr Raab was pictured firmly at his desk in a smart suit and flanked by union flags as he spoke to counterparts about the crisis this afternoon.
The sledgehammer messaging came as the Foreign Secretary dismissed demands for his resignation after the Mail revealed that he ignored senior aides who urged him to contact Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar last Friday as the Taliban advanced on Kabul.
Mr Raab, who was on a break with his family in Crete, was told he should immediately request assistance in rescuing interpreters who had worked for the British military, and he needed to do it personally.
Instead he delegated the task to junior minister Lord Goldsmith – whose contact was initially rejected by Mr Atmar seemingly because he was not at the same diplomatic level. The Foreign Office insisted he was ‘engaged on a range of other calls’ at the time.
On Thursday, the Foreign Secretary chaired a call of foreign and development ministers from the G7 group – made up of the so-called advanced economies including the US, Germany and Japan – to discuss the situation in the country.
Releasing a statement following the call, Mr Raab said G7 foreign ministers affirmed a commitment to ‘the urgent need for the cessation of violence’ and ‘respect for human rights including for women, children and minorities’.
It urged the Taliban to ‘guarantee safe passage to foreign nationals and Afghans wanting to leave’ and ensure that Afghanistan ‘does not become host to a terrorist threat’.
The G7 foreign ministers also committed to ‘engage with partners’ to secure an ‘inclusive political settlement’ that would enable humanitarian aid and prevent further loss of life in Afghanistan.
The statement comes as the UN counterterrorism chief is urging the Security Council ‘to use all tools at its disposal to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a platform or safe haven for terrorism.’
Undersecretary-General Vladimir Voronkov reminded the 15-member council on Thursday that several members of the Taliban remain on the UN sanctions blacklist as ‘designated terrorists.’ He also noted concerns by some council nations at the Taliban’s release of prisoners affiliated with al-Qaeda and IS, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh.
The counterterrorism chief said IS militants remain focused on reconstituting their former control in Iraq and Syria, waging an insurgency against security forces.
‘However, it is the lack of a comprehensive solution to the situation of thousands of individuals with alleged links to Daesh who remain stranded in Iraq and Syria that could shape the future terrorist threat landscape over the medium to long term, not just locally but globally,’ Voronkov said.
He said the pace of repatriations by member states is too slow ‘considering the scale of this humanitarian, human rights and strategic security priority, which only grows more complex as time passes.’
‘And I think because of this development in Afghanistan, it could create even more dangerous environment in these camps with unpredictable consequences,’ Voronkov warned.
The head of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies called on the UN Security Council – whose five permanent members are the US, Britain, China, Russia and France – to seriously and urgently consider declaring Kabul ‘a safe zone’ and sending a U.N. peacekeeping force to protect it.
Davood Moradian said in a briefing to the council on Thursday that this would allow Afghanistan’s rival factions to come to an inclusive political settlement ‘while working to mitigate the unfolding catastrophe.’
He told members by video from an undisclosed location outside Afghanistan that he was at Kabul airport 48 hours ago watching the chaos and ‘the unfolding catastrophe’ as he and others tried to get flights out of Afghanistan and people were racing down the runway trying to get on a US military plane.
Afghan women disembark from a Spanish Airbus A-400M plane that had ‘just over 50 people’ on board despite having capacity for 150, at Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid
Spain’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares (centre left) and Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Jose Luis Escriva (centre right) escort Afghan evacuees off the first flight to arrive from Afghanistan to Spain
Afghan men, women and children disembark from the first evacuation flight to land in Spain as the west pulls out of Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting
MONDAY: Video footage emerged showing a dozen men – some young – clinging to the landing gear of a US evacuation jet flying out of Kabul airport as pandemonium unfolded after the Taliban seized the capital
At least three bodies were seen falling from the USAF jet as it climbed into the air on Monday
People chasing after a USAF C-17 cargo jet at Kabul airport on Monday, when thousands poured onto the runway for a chance to flee the Taliban
The Afghan teen who chose to die clinging to plane rather than live under the Taliban: Football player, 19, with an influencer-style social media profile is identified as boy who tried to cling to landing gear of US jet and was found dead in wheel
Zaki Anwari attended a prestigious French-American school in Kabul alongside the children of western diplomats
This is the teenage Afghan national youth team footballer who died when he became trapped in the landing gear of a US evacuation flight in a desperate attempt to flee the Taliban.
Zaki Anwari, 19, was born after the US drove the Taliban from Afghanistan and would only have heard about their rule from his parents while living under the western-supported regimes of Presidents Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.
He attended a prestigious international school in Kabul alongside the children of diplomats and his social media profile is one of an aspiring influencer, filled with western-influenced modelling style photos.
His football team the Khorosan lions reported that he had been among the teen’s videoed clinging to the side of a US C-17 transport.
Mr Anwari’s remains were discovered in the wheel well of a US C-17 transport jet when it arrived in Qatar, after the plane had taken off from Kabul with despairing Afghans clinging to the fuselage on Monday.
The athlete was among several people who died after clambering onto the aircraft as it took off, with harrowing video showing bodies tumbling to the ground as the jet climbed into the sky.
‘It was shared human desperation, helplessness and fear,’ Moradian said. He said one passenger who fell to the ground from the plane ‘was reportedly a member of Afghanistan’s national football team.’
Moradian said the Taliban takeover is not the end of the military and political crisis in Afghanistan. The past four decades have shown, he said, that ‘a military solution is just a brief pause to the next phase of the war.’
Rescue flights from Kabul continue, with a Dutch military transport plane arriving in Amsterdam carrying people evacuated late on Wednesday. The Ministry of Defense says that a C-17 plane landed at Schiphol airport with 35 Dutch nationals and Britons, Belgians and Germans on board.
The government says it has now airlifted 50 Dutch nationals out of Kabul. A Dutch consular crisis team along with dozens of troops to protect the personnel flew into the Afghan capital on Wednesday.
The first evacuation flight from Kabul organized by the Slovak government has landed in Slovakia. Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok says a total of 20 passengers were onboard, 16 Slovak nationals and four Afghans among them, including a 10-month old baby. It was the full capacity of the military transport plane.
Four other Afghan nationals who were working with the Slovak armed forces were transported onboard of a Czech evacuation flight and flown to Slovakia overnight.
Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said the members of Slovak army’s special forces had to use weapons to secure the passengers’ safe transport to the plane. He cited a deteriorating situation at the airport but declined to give details.
Prime Minister Eduard Heger says his country is coordinating further steps with allies.
A second airplane carrying people evacuated from Afghanistan has landed in Warsaw. The plane landed on Thursday morning, following one that brought people late Wednesday.
Poland has deployed 100 soldiers to Afghanistan to help with the evacuations of Polish and Afghan citizens. Those evacuated are first transported to Uzbekistan by military transport and then brought to Poland on civilian airliners.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has shared images on Facebook of some of those being evacuated.
Two more Italian C130s have brought nearly 200 Afghan citizens out of Kabul, as Italy continues its evacuation of people who worked with Italian forces and their families following the Taliban takeover of the country.
The Defense Ministry said the passengers aboard the two flights were transferring Thursday to other aircraft in Kuwait, and from there would continue onto Rome.
Italy has vowed to evacuate as many Afghans as it can, particularly those who worked with Italian forces during the nearly two-decade long NATO and U.S.-led operation in the country.
With the arrival in Rome later Thursday of the latest evacuees Italy says it will have airlifted out some 500 Afghans.
In Moscow, Russia’s top diplomat on Thursday reiterated a call for a broad dialogue between all political forces in Afghanistan, noting that the Taliban do not control ‘the entire territory’ of Afghanistan yet.
Speaking at a news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed to ‘reports … about the situation in the Panjshir Valley, where the resistance forces of Afghan Vice President (Amrullah) Saleh and Ahman Massod have been gathering.’
He said that it makes Moscow’s stance on the necessity of a dialogue between all rival forces and groups even more consistent. Russia has been calling for one when ‘all of Afghanistan was engulfed in a civil war,’ and continues to urge it now, ‘when the Taliban have taken power in Kabul, in the majority of other cities, in the majority of Afghanistan’s provinces.’
A young girl is passed to US soldiers guarding Hamid Karzai airport amid a desperate scramble to get out of the country by tens of thousands of Afghans who don’t want to be ruled by the Taliban
A British soldier carries an Afghan girl away from crowds at the gate, as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today urged people not to pass their children to troops because they will not get a seat on flights out
Troops fired gunshots and let off stun grenades at the entrance to the northern military side of the airport overnight in a vain bid to keep crowds of thousands from rushing the gates
‘We support the same thing – a nationwide dialogue’? that will lead to a representative government, Lavrov said. ‘This, with the support of Afghan citizens, will work out agreements on the final make-up of this long-suffering country.’
Earlier this week, the minister stressed that Moscow was ‘in no rush’ to recognize the Taliban as the new rulers of Afghanistan. Russia had labeled the Taliban a terrorist organisation in 2003, but has since hosted several rounds of talks in Afghanistan, most recently in March, that involved the group.
Moscow, which fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with Soviet troops’ withdrawal in 1989, has made a diplomatic comeback as a mediator, reaching out to feuding Afghan factions and cultivating ties with the Taliban as it has jockeyed with the US for influence in the country.
The Russian government also blamed Afghanistan’s president for precipitating the Taliban takeover of the country by dragging his feet on negotiating a comprehensive peace deal.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had ‘every opportunity over the past three years to ensure the success of an inter-Afghan peace process and help a gradual formation of an inclusive government involving all ethnic and political factions.’
She added that Ghani, who fled the country just as the Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday in a lightning offensive, had missed the chance for a peaceful settlement and ‘bears responsibility for what happened.’
Moscow long has been critical of Ghani, accusing him of stonewalling proposals for an inclusive government during the protracted talks with the Taliban and other Afghan factions in the past.
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