German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced on Tuesday that the operation to evacuate Germans and other people in need of protection from Afghanistan was in full swing
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2021) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced on Tuesday that the operation to evacuate Germans and other people in need of protection from Afghanistan was in full swing.
"Our Bundeswehr-supported evacuation campaign is now fully underway... The second evacuation flight took off from Kabul about an hour ago," he told reporters ahead of EU foreign ministers' meeting.
The German military jet carried 125 German, Afghan and other nationals to safety in nearby Uzbekistan, Maas said, adding that a hundred others were waiting for their turn on the military side of the Kabul airport.
German soldiers are securing "floodgates" to the airport, the foreign minister said. Two more jets are expected to fly into Kabul from the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on Tuesday.
Maas said German nationals were told to go to Kabul after the Taliban insurgency (banned in Russia) manning checkpoints around the capital promised to let foreigners through. There is no such arrangement in place for the Afghan support staff of NATO countries, he admitted.
EU foreign ministers will agree a joint stance on Afghanistan at their emergency video conference, Maas said. The EU will judge those in control of Afghanistan by their actions, he warned.
