talk with taliban and to help women that didn t go to work, go to school and want to be the voice of them. reporter: now, one key issue between the u.s. and the taliban is getting kabul international airport up and running again. very important to the biden administration to try to get those americans and that much larger group of afghans out of the country. and also very important to the taliban because they want to show that they are the rulers of a functioning state, and you cannot have a functioning state without a functioning airport. now, a number of government flights from qatar and from the u.a.e. have landed in kabul and there are now domestic flights, flights within afghanistan taking off and landing from that airport. guys? raf sanchez reporting from doha. thank you. covid infections in the u.s. are spiking but it s not stopping people from traveling. no, it isn t.
larger number of afghan allies were left behind during the airlift out of the country. but it is also important to the taliban. they are looking to show that they are the leaders of a functioning state. and to have a functioning state, you need a functioning airport. the airport, not yet open to international civilian travel, but some government flights from the uae and from qatar have landed. we are hearing that domestic flights within afghanistan are taking off and landing at the airport, guys? and, the concern has always been the impact that the taliban rule would have on women. it is part of the reason why we went there in the first place 20 years ago, it was one of the concerns as we pulled out, the taliban has insisted that women will have a prominent role in society over there. have there been any real efforts to include them in this new government? yes, kendis. these are the words we hear the taliban say in these interviews, that they are looking for an
sarah, we have no diplomatic presence in afghanistan. do we really have leverage with the taliban? we got money. is that enough? there s not even a functioning airport or a plan to get the one in kabul up and running again. we must keep asking those in power how, how, now what? now what? how are they going to help those still trying to escape in afghanistan? and then at some point in the future we ll get to and how are you going to keep this country as safe without a real presence there? now, on the first question, the immediate one, let s go to a member of congress who recently took an unauthorized trip to the kabul airport congressman seth moulton. welcome back. good to be back, chris. what do you make of the president s assessment that the withdrawal was an enormous success? well, in many respects it was an enormous success in terms of the number of people we evacuated, but it didn t have to wait so long. it didn t have to cause cost
despite promises from the united states to people like sarah we have no diplomatic presence in afghanistan. do we really have leverage with the taliban? we got money. is that enough? there s not even a functioning airport or a plan to get the one in kabul up and running again. we must keep asking those in power how, how, now what? now what? how are they going to help those still trying to escape in afghanistan? and then at some point in the future we ll get to and how are you going to keep this country as safe without a real presence there? now, on the first question, the immediate one, let s go to a member of congress who recently took an unauthorized trip to the kabul airport congressman seth moulton. welcome back. good to be back, chris. what do you make of the president s assessment that the withdrawal was an enormous success? well, in many respects it was an enormous success in terms of
this new, basically, war bounty, the spoils of war that they are going to obtain. now there were this was a rapid evacuation that included a lot of, you know, controlled destructions of various weaponry, things they didn t want the taliban to have. also, at the same time, though, they did leave some equipment that would be necessary for the running of the airport, again, as this in this landlocked country, an absolutely essential aspect of getting americans out and other afghan allies to have an airport there. so that was the very interesting thing we saw there. again, a mix of coordination with the taliban at the same time of departing. leaving some things behind they ll be able to use to have a functioning airport. there was some hand shakes that we saw on the way out. which is just an extraordinary