France sees need for Afghan evacuations beyond US deadline

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday that Paris believed it necessary to continue Afghan evacuations beyond Washington’s August 31 deadline following the Taliban takeover.

France is seeking to evacuate more than 1,000 Afghans who are fleeing the country following the Taliban’s lightning takeover a week ago, one of a number of nations scrambling to pull out vulnerable individuals.

“We are concerned about the deadline set by the United States on August 31. Additional time is needed to complete ongoing operations,” Le Drian told reporters at the UAE’s Al-Dhafra air base, where France has set up an air bridge for people evacuated from Kabul.

France had “sheltered” nearly 1,200 people leaving Afghanistan between August 17 and 22, including approximately 100 French nationals and 1,000 vulnerable Afghans, as well as dozens of other nationalities, the French delegation said.

Le Drian said that access to Kabul airport was the main issue facing evacuation operations.

“We still need to increase our coordination locally, with the United States and with our partners present on site,” he said.

Defence Minister Florence Parly said Paris had a pre-approved plan to protect its citizens and Afghans who had worked alongside France.

“We started planning airlift operations before the fall of Kabul,” she said.

By Monday evening, France had evacuated “nearly 1,700 people” since August 17, Le Drian said, and estimated that this number should rise to 2,000 on Tuesday.

Those brought out so far are 90 French citizens, other EU nationals and “more than 1,500 Afghans”, he said.

“Each flight is a feat,” Le Drian said, because of the chaos at Kabul airport.

– Confusion in Kabul –

US President Joe Biden has set an August 31 deadline for the chaotic airlift organised by thousands of temporarily deployed US troops — but has left the door open to an extension if needed.

Since August 14, roughly 25,100 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan aboard aircraft flown by the US and its allies, according to a White House estimate.

Britain said Monday it would urge the United States at a virtual G7 summit to extend an end-of-the-month deadline to complete evacuations of Western citizens and Afghan colleagues from Kabul.

Germany also said it was in talks with both NATO allies and the Taliban about keeping Kabul airport open beyond August 31.

But a spokesman for the Taliban, Suhail Shaheen, told Sky News that the hardline Islamist group would not agree to any extension of the deadline, calling this a “red line”, with any delay viewed as “extending occupation”.

Nearly 200 Afghans arrived in Abu Dhabi late Monday aboard a French military transport aircraft from Kabul, many still shocked by their ordeal and some with only a small backpack of possessions.

“Physically, I’m fine. But mentally I’m really sick. The world has to help us, especially us women,” Shukriya, who works for a Swedish NGO, told AFP.

Le Drian and Parly held a video conference with French Ambassador to Afghanistan David Martinon.

He highlighted the confusion in Kabul and difficulties in carrying out the evacuations, with thousands of Afghans clamouring for admission to the airport.

“They spend hours and hours in the sun, in the dust,” Martinon said of people who arrive with the proper paperwork to be evacuated to France.

Sometimes those forced to wait outside are targeted with rubber bullets, the ambassador said.

“But once they get through it, everything goes really fast,” he added of the evacuation process.