The Latest: US effort to get Americans out of Kabul goes on

WASHINGTON — The United States says its mission to get Americans out of Afghanistan will continue after Monday’s withdrawal.

Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, says it’s just that the evacuation effort “has shifted from a military mission to a diplomatic mission.” He cited “considerable leverage” the U.S. has over the Taliban to get out any remaining Americans — a number that U.S. official have said is under 200.

Sullivan says the U.S. intends to continue sending health, food and other forms of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people. He says that other forms of aid, including economic and developmental, would depend on Taliban actions and adherence to publicly stated commitments.

American forces helped evacuate over 120,000 U.S. citizens, foreigners and Afghans after the Taliban regained control of the country, according to the White House. Coalition forces also evacuated their citizens and Afghans. But foreign nations and the U.S. government acknowledged they didn’t evacuate all who wanted to go.

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MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:

— Taliban control now-quiet Kabul airport after US withdrawal

— In Kabul, some fear economic collapse more than Taliban fist

— Analysis: War is over but not Biden’s Afghanistan challenges

— As US military leaves Kabul, many Americans, Afghans remain

— Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war

— Qatar emerges as key player in Afghanistan after US pullout

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— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/afghanistan

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel has stressed that Germany is focused on humanitarian aid now and on helping former local Afghan staffers who were not evacuated in the last two weeks.

Merkel said their numbers are “not 300” but “between 10,000 to 40,000.” Germany has evacuated more than 5,000 people from Afghanistan this month, the majority of them Afghans.

She said that of those who remain, it wasn’t clear how many of them want to leave Afghanistan. She says that while Germany doesn’t have any diplomatic relations with the Taliban, it’s important to talk to the militant group, also in order to get further Afghans in need of evacuation out of the country.

Merkel spoke ahead of talks on Tuesday with her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz in Berlin. Kurz reiterated his country’s position to not take in any migrants from Afghanistan. He said that “when it comes admission, my position in known. Nothing much has changed there. Especially because Austria has done a lot already. We have taken in a disproportionately high amount of people since 2015, we have the per-capita fourth biggest Afghan community worldwide.”

Kurz has long taken a tough approach to migration issues. Last month he said that he also would not halt the deportations of rejected asylum seekers to Afghanistan despite the situation there.

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BERLIN — Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says his country is not prepared to take in more Afghans and will not back a Europe-wide system for distributing refugees from Afghanistan across the European Union.

Asked about proposals for all EU countries to share the burden of taking in refugees, Kurz told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that Austria had already taken in a “bigger than proportionate share” of migrants since 2015.

Austria already has the fourth largest Afghan community worldwide, he said ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel said that, for her government, the focus now is on how to help up to 40,000 Afghans who are entitled to come to Germany with their close family because they had worked for the German military or aid organizations.

“We need to see how many actually want to leave the country and how many don’t,” she said. “That will depend very much on the circumstances the Taliban create in the country.”

Speaking at a separate event, Germany’s interior minister said his country is willing to take in Afghans who are at particular risk of persecution, but declined to say how many.

“I don’t think it’s wise if we talk about numbers here, because numbers obviously trigger a pull effect and we don’t want that,” said the minister, Horst Seehofer.

He urged all 27 EU countries to agree on a common asylum policy, noting that “so far Austria hasn’t been prepared to do so, up to now.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — A prominent member of the Taliban’s political office has congratulated Afghans on their “great victory” in achieving “full independence of the country” as the U.S. troops pulled out.

Shahabuddin Delawar spoke to a gathering of about a hundred people, apparently only men, in Kabul on Tuesday. The event was carried live on state television. Delawar chastised the enemy — meaning U.S. and NATO forces — and accused the West of spreading propaganda to undermine the Taliban.

But, he warned, “you will soon witness the progress” of the nation. Delawar spoke with the white Taliban flag seen in the background. The state TV captioned the live shot with he caption: “Celebration of Independence Day and the end of U.S. invasion in Afghanistan”

Delawar also reminded the audience that the Taliban defeated the Soviet Union and today they defeated America. He asked Afghan ambassadors to return home, and promised that the Kabul airport would resume operations soo.

His speech both celebrated the Taliban’s return to power, and underlined their latest mantra that they are not a threat to anyone. He also sought to assure the world that they were a government the international community could do business with. He vacillated between reveling in their victory to assuring those who had opposed them to return.

“We do not seek revenge,” he said.

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BEIJING — China says the withdrawal of the U.S. military and others from Afghanistan shows the nation “has broken free from foreign military occupation, and the Afghan people stand at a new starting point for peace and reconstruction.”

“The history of Afghanistan is entering a new chapter,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing Tuesday.

China has kept its embassy in Kabul following the Taliban’s sweep to power and In July hosted a delegation from the group including its political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. China shares a narrow border with Afghanistan and is chiefly concerned with preventing the Taliban exporting instability or Islamic militancy to its traditionally Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang.

As Washington’s chief strategic rival, China has been piling on criticism of the chaotic pullout of U.S. and NATO forces, stating on a daily basis that the performance shows the U.S. cannot be relied on by countries that need its political and military support.

China, along with Russia, abstained from a vote at the United Nations calling on the Taliban to allow all those wishing to leave Afghanistan to be allowed to do so.

“The recent chaos in Afghanistan is directly related to the hasty and disorderly withdrawal of foreign troops,” Wang said. “We hope that the countries concerned will realize that the withdrawal is not the end of responsibility, but the beginning for reflection and correction of mistakes.”

He also urged the United States and other Western countries to provide Afghans with “much-needed economic, livelihood and humanitarian assistance to help the Afghan people overcome the difficulties and embark on the road to peaceful reconstruction as soon as possible, instead

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ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s foreign minister on Tuesday urged the international community to act to prevent an “economic collapse” in neighboring Afghanistan after the takeover of the country by the Taliban and the pullout of U.S. forces.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi says it’s in the interest of peace and stability for the world to remain engaged and not abandon Afghanistan since more instability and further exodus of Afghans fleeing the Taliban rule were not in the interest of the nation.

He said that “this is a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s history. International community must remain engaged, do not let economic collapse take place in Afghanistan.”

Qureshi spoke at a joint news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Tuesday, a day after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, marking the end of the 20 years of war next door.

Qureshi said Pakistan facilitated the evacuation of more than 10,000 foreigners from Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. He said Pakistan has already been hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees for the past decades and that his Islamic nation lacks the capacity to absorb more refugees.

Maas said that while the Taliban have pledged to form an inclusive government and respect human rights, it remains to be seen whether they will live up to those commitments.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — At one of Kabul’s upscale wedding halls, a celebration was in full swing around midday Tuesday. Afghan dance music could be heard from inside the hall.

According to reception hall’s manager, Shadab Azimi, 26, at least seven wedding parties have been held since the Taliban takeover of Kabul two weeks earlier, with festivities moved to daylight hours because of security concerns.

The Taliban, who during their previous rule between 1996-2001 had banned most music, except for devotional Islamic songs, did not announce a ban of live music, Azimi said. However, wedding singers canceled on their own, for fear of running afoul of possible new Taliban restrictions.

He said in recent celebrations, couples played taped music. Azimi said business was down by 80% over the past two weeks, presumably because of a sense of uncertainty.

The manager said Taliban patrols check in a couple of times a day, asking if he needs help with security, but have not seemed threatening. And unlike the security forces under the deposed government, the Taliban have not demanded bribes, he said.

“Former officials, including police officers, were asking us for money and we were forced to host their friends for lunches and dinners,” he said.

Even before the Taliban takeover, wedding parties were traditionally been segregated, with men and women celebrating in different spaces.

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TOKYO — Japan’s top diplomat says his country has temporarily moved its embassy from Afghanistan to Turkey but now plans to relocate it to Qatar, where the Taliban have an office. The Gulf Arab country is also expected to play an important political role in what comes next for Afghanistan.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi earlier this month visited the Middle East. He told reporters on Tuesday that his talks with leaders in the region suggest that Doha, the capital of Qatar, will carry growing political importance.

“I believe various forms of communication will take place,” Motegi said.

Japanese nationals at the embassy in Kabul were among the first to be evacuated from Afghanistan. Most of them were airlifted by the British military before Tokyo dispatched its Self-Defense Force aircraft last week as the security outside the Kabul airport worsened.

Last Thursday and Friday, Japan evacuated only one Japanese citizen, along with 14 Afghan people at the request of U.S. military, to Pakistan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said that safe evacuations of the rest of Japanese nationals and Afghans who worked for the Japanese Embassy and aid organization remain a top priority.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — Even as the U.S. and its NATO allies left Afghanistan, some of the gains of the last 20 years were on display as boys and girls rushed to school early on Tuesday.

Masooda was hurrying to get to her fifth grade class at a private school. “I’m not afraid of the Taliban,” she said. “Why should I be?”

Students had been called back to school four days ago. The Taliban have said students will be segregated by sex, but in many schools that was already the practice, except for the early grades.

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TOKYO — Afghan athlete Hossain Rasouli finally got his chance on Tuesday to participate in the Paralympics.

Rasouli and teammate Zakia Khudadadi got to Tokyo on Saturday after being evacuated from Kabul. They arrived a week late, and since then the two-person team have been sequestered in the Paralympic Village for privacy and safety reasons.

They have also declined to speak to the media, before or after events.

Rasouli is primarily a sprinter but arrived too late for his event. So he tried the long jump in the T47 class, his only event at these Games, and finished last in the 13-man competition.

Khudadadi is set to become the first female Afghan athlete to compete in the Paralympics since 2004. She will challenge in the women’s 44-49-kilogram weight category in taekwondo on Thursday.

The Afghan athletes were met in Tokyo at the Paralympic Village on the weekend by IPC president Andrew Parsons.

Their arrival came less than two weeks after the IPC was informed the Afghan team could not travel to Tokyo, a move, Parsons said, “that broke the hearts of all involved in the Paralympic movement and left both athletes devastated.”

Parsons said that announcement started a “major global operation that led to their safe evacuation from Afghanistan” and arrival in Japan via France.