Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen warned US of serious repercussions for any possible extension of American military pullout deadline, calling it a ‘red line’ in an interview with Sky News published on Monday.
With time already ticking for the foreign troops and citizens’ pullout, Shaheen pointed that there is no need to extend Biden’s August 31 deadline on military forces withdrawal and that they’ll say no if the US or the UK seek additional time for evacuations.
He noted that US and its Allies will provoke a reaction and create mistrust if they insist on continuing their ‘occupation’, something President Biden mentioned as possible during his Sunday address to the Nation.
The Telegraph also reported British PM Boris Johnson will pressure Biden during a G7 meeting on Tuesday to delay the US forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in order to ease pressure on the Kabul Airport.
He focused on a number of pressing issues during the interview, including women’s rights and evacuation of Afghans now that the Taliban has come to power there, underlining they’re not trying to escape because they’re worried od scared of them, but because being poor, they want to resettle in western countries to have a prosperous life.
Shaheen underscored that it is a kind of economic migration since Afghanistan is a poor country and 70% of Afghans live under the line of poverty.
He also denied women will lose anything under the Taliban since they’re entitled to have the same rights but that they must wear a hijab despite number of recent media reports saying that many Afghan women are afraid of returning to work or have been ordered to stay at home.
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