US Guarantees Safe Passage For Americans From Afghanistan

The Biden administration expects the Taliban to continue allowing safe passage for Americans and others to leave Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrawal is completed next week

According to Jake Sullivan, U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, The Taliban have both communicated privately and publicly that they will allow for safe passage.

In a CBS TV interview, Sullivan said After August 31st, they would make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident.

Such safe passage would suggest some form of ongoing cooperation between Washington and the Taliban, which now controls a country it ran from 1996 to 2001, before being toppled by the United States in retaliation for providing safe haven to the al Qaeda militants who planned the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He said more strikes and “other operations” are under consideration to retaliate for Thursday’s attack, which was claimed by ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State and was the most lethal incident for U.S. service members in Afghanistan in a decade.

U.S. forces are set to wind up their evacuation mission in Kabul before a Tuesday deadline set by Biden after the Taliban took control of much of the country.

That effort has been complicated by the threat of more attacks like Thursday’s blast that killed scores of Afghans and 13 American troops.

Sullivan also said U.S. officials do not believe that “the relevant terrorist groups in Afghanistan” have an advanced ability to plot attacks abroad.