Afghanistan live news Taliban say they seek no revenge in press conference vice-president says he is caretaker president

John Bolton, former national security adviser to Donald Trump and the US ambassador to the UN under George W. Bush, said the Taliban was “not making a very convincing case” that they would stick to human rights pledges.

Bolton told Channel 4 News: “I think right now the Taliban have their smiley faces on because they’ve had good western public relations advice and they won’t get back to slitting throats until everybody’s out of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

“I don’t trust them any more today than we did 20 years ago and I understand what they’re saying, I understand what some of their apologists in the west are saying, the only proof we’ll have is in the experience after they take control.

But if you look for where the best evidence is, it’s in the minds of the Afghan people and, as far as I can see, from a distance, they’re terrified.”

American citizens still in Afghanistan are encouraged to “shelter in place until and unless you receive a communication from the US Embassy,” state department spokesperson Ned Price said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that there are about 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens remaining in Afghanistan, who still need to be evacuated.

But Pentagon press secretary John Kirby had previously put that number somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000, demonstrating the interagency confusion within the Biden administration as Kabul evacuation efforts continue, a Politico editor noted.

US state department spokesperson Ned Price said the US had completed a draw down of embassy personnel from the Afghan capital of Kabul and those diplomatic personnel remaining were assisting the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies.
Former US ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass was also heading to Kabul on Tuesday to help with the evacuation, Price said, Reuters reports.

The US president, Joe Biden, has not spoken with any of his fellow world leaders since Kabul fell to the Taliban, the White House said.
“He has not yet spoken with any other world leaders,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. “Myself, Secretary (Antony) Blinken, several other senior members of the team have been engaged on a regular basis with foreign counterparts and we intend to do so in the coming days,” he added. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the administration’s focus was currently on the tense evacuation process for thousands of Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul, AFP reports.

The UN human rights council is to hold a special session next week on the situation in Afghanistan to address “serious human rights concerns” after the Taliban takeover, a United Nations statement said.

The Geneva forum is set to convene on 24 August at the request of Pakistan and nearly 90 other countries supporting the move, it said.

Convening a special session requires support from one-third of the council’s 47 member states.

Backers so far include members Britain and France - but not China or Russia - while the United States was not among supporting countries with observer status, a provisional UN list showed, Reuters reports.

On 1 October 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 attacks and six days before the bombing of Afghanistan began, there was a small protest march in Washington.

The marchers wore badges saying “Don’t Turn Tragedy into War” and “Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War”, and argued that war was not the inevitable response to the terrorist outrage.

The protest fell on the deafest of ears in the wake of the atrocities committed by al-Qaida. The headline on the New York Times report on the march was “Marchers Oppose Waging War Against Terrorists”.

Twenty years on, in the wake of a stunning defeat for the US and its allies and the return of the Taliban to power, the questions the marchers were asking are being asked again â€" this time in a spirit of resignation and despair.

A veteran trapped in Afghanistan has said western governments who gave young people in the country hope have now “abandoned them to the wolves”.
Former Royal Marine Commando and founder of the Nowzad animal charity, Paul Farthing, tried to organise his wife’s escape via Kabul airport on Tuesday, but said she became “crushed” in the uncontrolled crowd. He has urged the British government to help his staff, their dependants and the animals leave Afghanistan under a campaign called Operation Ark, which aims to fundraise £200,000. The veteran said he will not leave the country without the 71 refugees, PA reports. Farthing said he has “never been as worried and frightened about the future as I am now with what is happening in Afghanistan”. He added: “Our western governments gave the young generations of Afghanistan hope for the future, and in one swift stroke of a White House pen they abandoned them to the wolves.

“Everyone who cares for compassionate caring people now needs to step up and let their voices be heard. They have no future if you do not.”

It had just started raining at the White House on Monday when a group of reporters, the Guardian included, were summoned and led past a Secret Service agent, along a red carpet in a windowless corridor, up a staircase and into the elegantly appointed East Room.

It was hardly the first Joe Biden speech on this spot but it was probably the most important. The president had flown back from Camp David to address the catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan after his decision to withdraw US forces.

What followed over 19 minutes was a robust defence of the strategic reasons America was ending its longest war â€" but rather less detail on how the departure was executed.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the Taliban have told the US it will provide safe passage for civilians to reach the airport in Afghanistan.

Sullivan also told a White House news briefing the United States believes the Kabul evacuation can go until 31 August and it is talking to the Taliban about the exact timeline and how it will play out, Reuters reports.

Afghan women and girls who have won freedoms they could not have dreamed of under the last Taliban rule that ended 20 years ago are desperate not to lose them now the Islamist militant movement is back in power, Reuters reports.

Some women have already been ordered from their jobs during the chaos of Taliban advances across the country in recent days. Others are fearful that whatever the militants say, the reality may be different.

“Times have changed,” said Khadija, who runs a religious school for girls in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban are aware they can’t silence us, and if they shut down the internet the world will know in less than five minutes. They will have to accept who we are and what we have become.”
Afghan girls’ education activist Pashtana Durrani, 23, was wary of Taliban promises.

They have to walk the talk. Right now they’re not doing that,” she said, referring to assurances that girls would be allowed to attend schools.

“If they limit the curriculum, I am going to upload more books to (an) online library. If they limit the internet ... I will send books to homes. If they limit teachers I will start an underground school, so I have an answer for their solutions.”

On Tuesday an unprecedented discussion took place on an Afghanistan television channel: a female presenter interviewed a Taliban spokesperson about the group’s plans for the country, days after insurgents seized control of the capital, Kabul.

Beheshta Arghand’s discussion with the spokesperson Mawlawi Abdulhaq Hemad is being claimed by the rolling news channel Tola News as the first time an Afghan woman has conducted an interview with a senior Taliban official inside the country’s borders.

“We said to them, look, a female is going to interview you,” said Saad Mohseni, the founder of Tolo News. “And they said fine. They could have easily have said screw you â€" they run the country, they can do whatever they want.”

Tolo News briefly sent its female reporters home on Sunday owing to fears for their safety. But two days later many have returned to work and are out reporting on the streets.

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