we will use every appropriate tool at our disposal to isolate that government and as i said before, afghanistan will be. sgla withdrawal with taliban on the airport. thanks. there are very active efforts on the way, under way on the part of regional countries to see whether they can play a role in keeping the airport open once our military mission leaves or as necessary reopening if it
so just to put into context, that s a flight yesterday. every 39 minutes, that is thousands and thousands of people coming through the airport every single day, 19,000 people yesterday. i think these numbers do provide context. and we are going to continue to press every single day to get more people who are eligible out of the country. of course, we don t know of those 80,000 how many are siv eligible applicants. some may just be those who wanted to evacuate the country, which is part of why i asked. well, i think that what s important to note here is that the people who we are prioritizing are american citizens, our siv applicants, and others who might be eligible for a variety of programs. and in order to prevent a mass crowding at the airport, those are the people we are in direct contact with. then let me ask about the two congressmen i know in the statement you ve put out about they shouldn t be doing this, that this was the wrong decision to be made. about the merits of
mission leaves or as necessary, reopening it if it closes for some period of time. and that s happening very actively right now. the taliban have made clear that they have a strong interest in having a functioning airport. we, and the rest of the international community, have a strong interest in that primarily for the purpose of making sure that anybody that wants to leave can leave past the 31st using an airport. so that is a very active effort underway as we speak. with regard to our own potential presence going forward after the 31st, we re looking at a number of options. thank you all very much. martha: okay. there you have it. anthony blinken, for the first
closes for some period of time and that s happening very actively right now. the taliban have made clear that they have a strong interest in having a functioning airport. we and the rest of the international community certainly have a strong interest in that, primarily for the purpose of making sure anyone who wants to leave can leave past the 31st using use an airport and so that s a very active effort that s under way as we speak, and, again, with regard to our own potential presence going forward after 39 after the 31st, we re looking at a number of options. thank you all investment. good afternoon, everybody. i m aaron gill grist crist in for ayman mohyeldin. we just heard an update from secretary of state tony blinken on the evacuation effort in afghanistan. also this hour, we do expect to
extended family or their immediate family. there are cases and this might not be the policy but there s cases that u.s. citizens have to choose. of course they want to leave. maybe they can t make to it the gates. how do you keep small children to the gates? they re getting trampled to death. we had a u.s. citizen, interpreter, a 2-year-old was trampled to death because the crowds are massive. the taliban own the perimeters outside the airport. the state department allowed them to be our first vetting process. so they can take people out if they want. there s plenty of people that want to get out the next few weeks and months that can t. to blame them for not getting out sooner and you addressed this in the last interview and i add to that, this administration said the taliban wouldn t take