We can’t abandon Afghans after August 31, says Angela Merkel

Efforts to rescue vulnerable Afghans from Kabul should continue even after the Nato airlift ends, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said. Time is running out for the military operation after US President Joe Biden resisted calls to extend its August 31 deadline. Rescue flights will have to be wound down before then. Mrs Merkel said Berlin was exploring ways to resume commercial flights from the airport, which were stopped after the Taliban takeover, so Nato’s Afghan contractors could escape the country. She said Germany would not “shy away from discussions with the Taliban” to allow for evacuations and push the West’s demands for Afghanistan. “The end of the airlift in a few days … cannot be the end of the efforts to protect our Afghan personnel and help those Afghans who were thrown into greater need by the advance of the Taliban,” she said.