Texas Congressman Michael McCaul says the Taliban is refusing to let six planes carrying American citizens and Afghan interpreters leave an airport in Afghanistan. McCaul, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made the comments on Fox News Sunday.
"We have hundreds of American citizens left behind enemy lines in Afghanistan as I speak, and also very sadly, the interpreters who worked with our special forces, almost all of them were left behind," McCaul says.
McCaul says he could not provide exact numbers because they were part of classified briefings, but he says planes were being held at Mazar-i-Sharif Airport. McCaul says he worries the Taliban will demand recognition from the United States before letting the planes leave.
"That's my concern is they're going to demand more and more, whether it be cash or legitimacy as the government of Afghanistan," he says, adding the U.S. is now in a "desperate situation of very bad foreign policy of having to negotiate with the Taliban."
The U.S. State Department has not confirmed McCaul's account, writing in a statement that since the U.S. no longer has personnel on the ground or controls the airspace, it could not confirm details about charter flights. The Biden Administration says it is "hopeful" Qatar Airways will be able to resume air service from Kabul soon.
"We know many of them have family members, many of them want to stay, but the ones that want to leave, we're going to get them out," Ron Klain, White House chief of staff said on CNN's State of the Union. "What happened on August 31 is we transitioned from a military mission to a diplomatic mission to get the remaining Americans and Afghan allies out of the country, and we continue to work on that."
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