easy one, based on new comments from a taliban representative to sky news, indicating there would be resistance. remember, any cooperation that s been happening has been part of these fragile and sensitive conversations that have been happening on the ground between the u.s. military personnel and the taliban officials. the president yesterday in remarks at the white house indicated that there are discussions about potentially extending the august 31st deadline, but also indicated it wasn t his preference and it s interesting as we have to remind, it is not just american citizens and afghan partners we are trying to evacuate, there are so many western allies have their own nationals and partners that also need evacuated. that s why we are seeing pressure the other direction. boris johnson indicating he is using virtual conversation among the g7 leaders tomorrow to press president biden to extend that deadline. the president has had many one on one discussions, with g7 partners, this wi
operations began. as it stands now, the evacuation effort is set to end in eight days. president biden said on sunday the u.s. may extend the august 31st deadline, but the taliban warned just hours later, there will be no extension. let s go to nick paton walsh in qatar today. what can you tell us about the security right now at the airport in kabul? reporter: i mean, it s always been volatile. and when i was there last week, you could hear gunfire on the edges of the airport. there was the worst situation when a sniper shot one of the afghan security people who works on the base helping the americans there. that caused his colleagues, other afghans, to essentially fire back in the direction they thought the shot came from. i understand, actually, they ended up shooting toward u.s. marines that returned fire. they say in the exchange of gunfire, four afghans were, in fact, injured. i understand they are in a stable condition. today we have heard some
we just heard this weekend that they are not going to extend the 31st deadline. we don t have a plan of how to get all of our americans out, let alone the people that are trying to get to the airport and our afghany allies. what is our plan? we were in congress for several months and we were asking the heads of state, please, tell me what your plan is to get out. we are all in agreement that we need to get out. but tell us the plan. they would not share one detail. so my conclusion is either, a, they didn t have a plan or this administration is grossly incompetent and if they can t lead, i m here to say today they need to step out of the way and get some leaders in there who will actually lead, who will actually understand what the crisis of the day is, and be attentive and present at that
took over got only 2000 or less than 10% of the applicants for the visas out of the country for consideration. meaning that the military if it stuck to its august 31st deadline, would have been gone and left these people to the mercies of the taliban or whoever was in control of kabul and other cities without protection while their visas were being considered. and that timeline just doesn t wash. now the president is going to have to make a case that he s doing everything he can. it looks like the u.s. is in control inside the walls of the airport. but outside the walls, we had no presence. we have no sovereignty. we have no authority, and so the bigger problem which is getting people to the airport, is the one i m going that s the problem i want to hear how he plans to address. jake sullivan, his national
refined, we may be able to be there. but we don t have that specific breakdown. how many american citizens remain in afghanistan? i don t know. well, the 7,000 figure, at this point, i m not in a position to break that down much further. the defense department, the state department, up able to answer what are important questions, important because joe biden has said u.s. troops will stay in afghanistan until all americans are out. even if it is past the august 31st deadline. and in order to know when u.s. troops can leave, you need to know how many americans are still in the country. mean meanwhile, outside the airport gates, this is the scene captured by cnn. rows and rows of men, women, and children, shoulder to shoulder, waiting. no idea what lies ahead. make no mistake, it is a dangerous journey out of afghanistan. i want to warn you, the pictures you re about to see are graphic. here you can see a child being