US will stick to its Afghanistan withdrawal date

Joe Biden resists any change to Aug 31 deadline, but seeks contingency plan

US President Joe Biden has said Washington will stick to its Aug 31 deadline for the withdrawal of its military from Afghanistan in line with a Pentagon recommendation.

Biden has resisted any change to the agreed deadline, but has asked for contingency plans to be made to stay longer should it be necessary, Reuters news agency reported.

John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told a media briefing on Tuesday: "There's been no change to the timeline of the mission, which is to have it done by the end of the month," he said.

In a separate press conference, the Taliban said it will not allow the West's evacuation deadline to be extended.

A Taliban spokesperson confirmed that all foreign citizens would be allowed to leave the country by Aug 31.

He added that the Taliban is "not in favor" of allowing Afghans to leave and insisted all evacuations should be completed by the deadline.

Britain's prime minister, Boris Johnson, hosted an emergency G7 meeting on Tuesday afternoon, with leaders urging Washington to extend the Aug 31 deadline and allow further evacuation flights.

Following the meeting, Johnson said the main priority set by the G7 is for safe passage, beyond the deadline, for those that want to leave.

The prime minister said the UK has taken 9,000 people out of Kabul so far on 57 flights and added that he is "confident" the UK can "get thousands more out". "The situation at the airport is not getting any better; there are public order issues."

He said the G7 has agreed a "joint approach" to dealing with the evacuation but there is also a "road map for future engagement with the Taliban".

In a joint statement, the G7 leaders expressed "grave concern about the situation in Afghanistan" calling for "calm and restraint to ensure the safety and security of vulnerable Afghan and international citizens, and the prevention of a humanitarian crisis."

The leaders also called for "adherence to obligations under international human rights law, including the rights of women, girls, and minority groups, and that international humanitarian law is upheld in all circumstances".

The statement also said: "Our immediate priority is to ensure the safe evacuation of our citizens and those Afghans who have partnered with us and assisted our efforts over the past twenty years, and to ensure continuing safe passage out of Afghanistan. We will continue to coordinate closely on this, and we expect all parties to continue to facilitate this, and to ensure the safety of humanitarian and medical personnel, and other international service providers."

China's foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said on Tuesday that the United States and its allies should draw lessons from what they have done in Afghanistan and "seriously reflect on "their behavior.

He said the international community should encourage and push the Afghan situation to develop in a positive direction and support its peaceful reconstruction to improve people's lives.

Wang warned that pressuring will not solve any problem and may only worsen the situation. Military intervention in the name of promoting democracy should be prevented from occurring again, he said.