Iran is clearly taking steps that can only be interpreted as provocative, yet the administration appears willing to excuse away any connection between these developments and signs of Iran's bad faith in negotiations.

Antony Blinken

Categorized in : Politics

I've got to say that if the security dialogue matches in quality what we, we experienced with the with the economic dialogue that would be -- and I fully expect it will -- be very, very positive and also productive.

People bring strongly held views to pretty much every issue that we deal with, and especially when it's an issue that engenders real passion, like Haiti, the level of desperation among the migrants is something that can't help but powerfully affect all of us, and so I really understand the passion that comes with this, and I understand Dan's passion. But that's also why both on a personal level and institutionally, we are committed to doing all we can to support the people of Haiti now and going forward.

We don't have yet an agreement by Iran to return to the talks, the question is whether and, if so, when Iran is prepared to do that.

We recognize this will take time and hard work, and will be demonstrated not only in words, but in deeds, and I'm committed to working closely with Minister Le Drian on this crucial effort.

His new recommendation was to extend the mission with US troops for a while to see if it could yield a political settlement. Buy time for negotiations.

We’re also concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of those individuals.

Without personnel on the ground, we can’t verify the accuracy of manifests, the identities of passengers, flight plans or aviation security protocols, so this is a challenge, but one we are determined to work through. We’re conducting a great deal of diplomacy on this as we speak.

Because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go.

We’re working around the clock with NGOs, with members of Congress and advocacy groups, providing any and all information and doing all we can to clear any roadblocks that they’ve identified to make sure that charter flights carrying Americans or others to whom we have a special responsibility can depart Afghanistan safely, without personnel on the ground, we can’t verify the accuracy of manifests, the identities of passengers, flight plans, or aviation security protocols. So this is a challenge, but one we are determined to work through. We’re conducting a great deal of diplomacy on this as we speak.

And it's my understanding is that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said those without valid documents, at this point, can’t leave.

There are groups of people who are grouped together. Some of them have the appropriate travel documents and American passport, a green card, a visa, and others do not, and it's my understanding that the Taliban has not denied access to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents, at this point, can't leave.

My expectation is we will have a breakdown of the numbers of people who left Afghanistan, including not just American citizens, but green card holders, SIV applicants, SIV visa holders, Afghans at risk, those eligible for P-1 and P-2 visas, all of that will be forthcoming in the days and weeks ahead as we're able to break down the numbers.

In our effort to get as many people out as fast as we can while we had the airport functioning, we focused on doing just that.

We're trying to determine exactly how many. We're going through manifests and calling and texting through our lists.

Our commitment to them, and to all Americans in Afghanistan, and everywhere in the world, continues.

We discussed how we will work together to facilitate safe travel out of Afghanistan, including by reopening Kabul's civilian airport soon as possible, and we very much appreciate the efforts of Qatar and Turkey, in particular, to make this happen. This would enable a small number of daily charter flights, which is a key for anyone who wants to depart from Afghanistan moving forward.

We inherited a deadline negotiated by the previous administration. That deadline was May 1, and the idea that we could have maintained the status quo beyond May 1 if the president had decided to stay, I think is a fiction.

No interviews had been done when we came into office for visas for these folks going back to March 2020. Now largely that was due to Covid. We restarted the interview process, we went from about 100 visas a week back in March to 800 in July. We've issued about 5,000 all told.

But here's the rub, and I acknowledge this, there is a difference between moving expeditiously to get this program off the ground, off the dead stall that it was in, and get it moving.... there's a difference between that and a full-on evacuation.

The fact of the matter is we've seen that that force has been unable to defend the country.