Foreigners fleeing Afghanistan at Kabul airport ‘are safe and can fly home’
Foreigners seeking to leave Afghanistan will be allowed to fly out of the country, a spokesman for the Taliban has pledged.
Zabihullah Mujahid made the comment at his first news conference this afternoon.
He said the insurgents sought no revenge and that ‘everyone is forgiven’, saying they held no grudges and wanted no more war.
The security of foreign embassies was of ‘crucial importance’, he said, and that residents of Kabul should ‘be assured that your security is guaranteed’.
He added: ‘I would like to assure the international community including the United States that nobody will be harmed in Afghanistan, I would like to assure our neighbours, regional countries, we are not going to allow our territory to be used against anybody, any country in the world.’
Mr Mujahid said the Taliban should be ‘treated accordingly’ by the international community.
‘We do not want to have any problem with the international community,’ he said.
‘We have the right to act on the basis of our religious principles and rules and regulations, this is the right of Afghans.’
Interpreters and contractors who supported Allied efforts will be pardoned, according to those behind the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
According to a translation by al Jazeera, he added: ‘I would like to reassure all the compatriots, whether they were translators, whether they had military activities or whether they have been civilians, all of them have been pardoned.
‘Nobody is going to be treated with revenge.
‘The youths who have talents, who have grown up here – we do not want them to leave. These are our assets, we would like them to stay here to serve.
‘We would like to assure you that no-one is going to knock on their door to inspect them or to ask them or interrogate them as to who they have been working for or interpreting for.
‘I would like to assure you that no harm is going to come, they are going to be safe.’
Any Taliban soldiers who have carried out house-to-house inspections are ‘abusers’ and will be ‘chased and investigated’, Mr Mujahid said.
It comes after the UK’s military figure leading the evacuation operation has said British armed forces ‘can’t afford to pause’ as they help British nationals and local allies out of the country via Kabul.
Royal Navy Vice Admiral Sir Ben Key also said it is up to individuals called forward to make their own way to the airport, where he said the Taliban are in control of the access points but seem ‘acquiescent’ about what the UK is trying to achieve there.
The UK is working to help get about 6,000 people out of Afghanistan.
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