Planes carrying hundreds of evacuees from Kabul arrived in the United Kingdom and Germany on Wednesday as Western nations stepped up evacuation efforts and the Taliban promised women’s rights, media freedom and amnesty for government officials in Afghanistan.

A British Royal Air Force plane carrying British nationals and embassy staff landed at an air base in Oxfordshire, UK, while a German government-chartered Lufthansa flight carrying 130 evacuees landed in Frankfurt in Germany.

The United States said its military flights had evacuated 3,200 people from Kabul so far, including 1,100 on Tuesday alone.

In Kabul, the Taliban sought to strike a conciliatory tone at their first press conference since their lightning seizure of the Afghan capital, promising to respect the rights of women “within the framework of Islam” and expressing a desire for peaceful relations with other countries.

“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” said Zabihullah Mujahid, the armed group’s main spokesman.

The Taliban announcements, short on details but suggesting a softer line than during their rule 20 years ago, came as one of the group’s co-founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, returned to Afghanistan for the first time in more than 10 years.

Source: Al Jazeera News

BDST: 1147 HRS, AUG 18, 2021
SMS