The UK has “hours now, not weeks” to evacuate people from Afghanistan, the defence secretary has said.
Ben Wallace said troops would leave Kabul’s airport when the US withdraws, which is due to happen on 31 August.
At an emergency meeting of G7 world leaders on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask US President Joe Biden for an extension of that deadline in order to allow more flights.
But a spokesman for the Taliban said it would not support a deadline extension.
Suhail Shaheen said an extension would mean extending Afghanistan’s occupation, and warned of consequences if that were to change.
Thousands of people are waiting to board flights at Kabul’s international airport, just over a week after the Taliban seized the capital.
The BBC’s chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet says she is receiving “desperate calls for help” on her phone “hour-by-hour and sometimes minute-by-minute” from those who know the window to get out is closing.
“Please my life is in danger. Please can you get me on a flight,” says one. Another reads: “Please I can’t get to the airport, can you get me inside?”
Armed forces minister James Heappey told the BBC that 6,631 people had been evacuated to the UK in the past week, and that nine flights were planned for the next 24-hour period.
The Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan shocked its people and the world. It happened after foreign forces announced their withdrawal following a deal between the US and the Taliban, two decades after American-led forces removed the militants from power in 2001.
Mr Wallace said: “I don’t think there is any likelihood of staying on after the United States.
“We are really down to hours now, not weeks. We have to make sure we exploit every minute to get people out.”
Downing Street said on Monday evening that the prime minister had spoken to Mr Biden, before Tuesday’s G7 summit, saying they had “committed to driving international action” to “stabilise the situation”.
They also agreed to continue working together to ensure that people eligible to leave can do so “including after the initial phase of the evacuation has ended”.
Earlier, No 10 said the UK would continue its evacuation process “as long as the security situation allows”.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said “discussions on the ground” had been held with the Taliban over extending the deadline, but officials were still working towards 31 August.
And a Pentagon spokesman said the US’s focus was “on getting this done by the end of the month”.
If commanders on the ground said an extension was needed it would be passed to President Biden, said spokesman John Kirby, but he added: “We just aren’t there right now.”
Source: BBC
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