CIA meeting with Taliban revealed as US allies press for evacuation extension

Afghanistan updates

CIA director William Burns met with the Taliban in Kabul this week as Joe Biden faced mounting pressure from western allies to extend the US-led evacuation from Afghanistan beyond August 31.

The secret meeting with Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar took place in the Afghan capital on Monday, a person familiar with the encounter told the FT, asking not be identified.

The engagement came ahead of a G7 meeting on Tuesday where leaders including Boris Johnson, UK prime minister, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, will push US president Joe Biden for more time to evacuate foreign nationals and Afghan allies.

It was the highest-level, in person meeting between the Biden administration and the Taliban since they took power, and occurred as western allies look for the US to reach a deal with the Taliban to allow evacuations to continue beyond the end of this month.

The CIA declined to comment. Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, told reporters on Monday afternoon that the US was “consulting with the Taliban on every aspect of what’s happening in Kabul right now, on what’s happening at the airport.”

US allies are concerned that there is insufficient time to evacuate their nationals and Afghan allies and have warned that the risks of attacks on troops and evacuees at the airport are increasing.

“As we get closer to the deadline, I think it’s correct to say the security risk goes up,” Ben Wallace, UK defence secretary, told Sky News. “It just gets more and more dangerous as add-on groups and other terrorist groups such as ISIS would like to be seen taking credit, or would like to be seen to chase the west out of the airport.”

Biden said on Sunday he “hoped” to stick to the US deadline for the withdrawal of all US troops from the country, while a Taliban spokesman on Monday told the Financial Times that any delay would be a “violation”. Though he did not rule out an extension, Sullivan on Monday said the White House believed there was still time before August 31 “to get out any Americans [who] want to get out.”

The precarious situation at Kabul airport underlines the limits of the west’s influence in Afghanistan since the Taliban swept to power last week following the initial withdrawal of US troops.

Tens of thousands of people are now seeking to get out of the country, including foreign nationals and Afghans who worked with western powers during the 20 year US-led operation, with many fearing reprisals from the Taliban if they stay. The US military reported its biggest day of airlifts out of Afghanistan by far on Tuesday, with 37 US flights taking 12,700 people out of the country in 24 hours. Including coalition flights, 21,600 people were evacuated in the same period, the White House said. But many more are still in Kabul.

Wallace said the UK has evacuated over 8,600 people since August 14, including around 2,000 in the past 24 hours. The UK has pledged to take 20,000 Afghans refugees under a new resettlement scheme announced last week. The Home Office has said that it expected the first 5,000 people to be relocated to the UK in the first year of the scheme.

Even some Taliban leaders appear concerned about the number of Afghans fleeing the country. Many of those scrambling to board flights are among the most educated members of the population, who are needed to keep the economy and public services running.

“People should not leave this country. Everyone should live here and contribute,” Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, a top Taliban leader, told a Pakistani newspaper in comments that were subsequently tweeted by other Taliban members.

The Taliban has struggled to keep public services operating since taking power. The group on Monday named Haji Mohammad Idris, a longstanding member of the Taliban about whom little is known, to serve as acting head of the central bank.

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