US allies react mutely to Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan

United States allies are reacting mutely to the Taliban’s victory march into the Afghan capital city of Kabul 20 years after a US-led invasion removed the militants from power, expressing concerns for civilians caught in the violence but falling short of pointing to the catastrophic failure of the longest war in US history.

In what appeared to be a US-orchestrated move, more than 60 countries issued a joint statement “saying Afghans and international citizens who want to leave Afghanistan must be allowed to depart and added that airports and border crossings must remain open,” the US State Department announced in a late Sunday statement.

“Those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan bear responsibility - and accountability - for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order,” said the statement signed by the US government and its allies, including Britain, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Qatar.

A joint statement from the State Department and Pentagon after the Taliban entered the Afghan capital confirmed that the United States over the next 48 hours will "have expanded our security presence to nearly 6,000 troops, with a mission focused solely on facilitating these efforts and will be taking over air traffic control."

Other signatories to the statement, according to the State Department, include countries with little or no interest in Afghanistan, namely: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine.

Separately, top US diplomat Antony Blinken echoed the same statement in a Twitter post that read, "The United States joins the international community in affirming that Afghans and international citizens who wish to depart must be allowed to do so. Roads, airports, and border crossing must remain open, and calm must be maintained." 

Biden admits lost cause

US President Joe Biden also issued a statement following the fall of Kabul, saying, "One more year, or five more years, of US military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country's civil conflict was not acceptable to me."

US State Department spokesman Ned Price declared late Sunday that all American embassy personnel in Kabul had been evacuated and are now located on the premises at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which he said is “secured by the US military.”

British PM rejects Taliban as Afghan government

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reacted to the Kabul development by insisting on Sunday that nobody should bilaterally recognize the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, claiming that there would clearly be a new administration in the country very soon.

“We don’t want anybody bilaterally recognizing the Taliban,” Johnson demanded as quoted in a Reuters report, calling on Western governments to work together on Afghanistan through mechanisms such as the United Nations and the US-led NATO military alliance.

“We want a united position amongst all the like-minded as far as we can get one so that we do whatever we can to prevent Afghanistan lapsing back into being a breeding ground for terror,” he further asserted.

ME