The Security Council of the United Nations Organization (UN) will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to address the takeover of most of Afghanistan’s provinces by the Taliban and the flight from the country of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The missions of Estonia and Norway to the United Nations, currently in charge of Afghan affairs in the Security Council, affirmed that the meeting between the fifteen members of the organization will take place at 10:00 local time, and that it will include a brief intervention by the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
The fall of the country to the Taliban occurred shortly after the forces of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began the final phase of the withdrawal in May, handing over all their military bases to the Afghans. .
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The entry of the Taliban into Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, caused several countries to choose to evacuate their diplomatic and national staff. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has also fled the country, precipitating and accelerating evacuation plans that were already underway.
While waiting for the evacuation to take place, the United States and other Western countries have transferred their embassy staff to the Kabul airport, which has become a makeshift diplomatic headquarters where preparations for a departure from Afghanistan are being hastily processed. .
In statements to the string ABC NewsUS Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that work is being done “to make sure our staff is safe and secure. We are transferring the men and women of our embassy to a place at the airport ”.
Blinken did not want to fully confirm whether the embassy complex in Kabul will be closed and abandoned, but reiterated that the “minimal diplomatic presence” that the United States has decided to maintain in the Afghan capital will operate from the airport while the rest of the country is evacuated from the country. personal.
According to CNN, that diplomatic mission will be closed at the latest on Tuesday, the 17th, while the American charge d’affaires in Kabul, Ross Wilson, and the rest of the essential personnel will work from the airport for an indefinite period.
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The French Government adopted the same measure with the French embassy in Kabul, which has been transferred to the airport “to proceed with the evacuation of the French who are still” in Afghanistan.
“Due to the enormous and rapid degradation of security in Afghanistan, the French authorities have decided to move their embassy inside the Kabul airport, so it remains active to proceed with the evacuation of all the French who are still” in the country, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced in a statement.
Germany has transferred its embassy staff and local employees to the Kabul airport, awaiting a safe evacuation in military planes and while Sweden and other Nordic countries hope to conclude that operation today.
Preparations for the evacuation were rushed today by Germany and Sweden, which expect to complete the operation today. Denmark and Norway already announced on the 13th the closure of their embassies.
Spain will evacuate from Afghanistan all the personnel of its embassy – a dozen workers – and hundreds of Afghans who collaborated during the military missions and Spanish cooperation projects, diplomatic sources reported today.
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The Spanish Ministries of Foreign and Defense closed the logistics, the number of people who will be repatriated and the planes that will be used in this mission, indicated the sources, who indicated that as soon as the circumstances allow it, the evacuation will begin, which will also include the Afghans and the diplomatic personnel, officials and security personnel of the embassy, as well as the six Spaniards who are registered as residents in Afghanistan.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that, given the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan, Canadian diplomats have left the country and are returning to Canada.
Trudeau pointed out that he had been informed on Sunday morning about the situation in Kabul, and in the rest of Afghanistan, and that in the face of “the serious problems” caused by the collapse of the Government of President Ashraf Ghani, Canadian diplomatic personnel “are now on the way to Canada ”.
NATO, institutionally the highest defensive and security pillar of the West and which has had an important presence in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, considered today that “it is more urgent than ever” a political solution to the conflict in the Central Asian country.
According to an anonymous NATO source, the Alliance supports Afghan efforts to “find a political solution to the conflict, which is now more urgent than ever” and will maintain its diplomatic presence in Kabul, which it will adjust “as necessary.”
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