Pentagon Spox Says Officials in ‘Daily Communication’ With Taliban About Which Refugees ‘We Want in’

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that officials were in “daily communication” with the Taliban about helping to vet individuals the United States would like admitted to the international airport in Afghanistan’s capital.

He was responding to a reporter who asked what the United States was doing to ensure Afghans could make it to the airport despite Taliban resistance, and whether officials were doing anything about reports that some with valid visas were being escorted out of the airport due to paperwork issues.

“It’s difficult for us to answer that here at the Pentagon when we’re not at the gates and on the ground at the airport,” Kirby replied. “We have consular officers, now there’s more than 30 at the airport stationed at the gates with American troops, who are helping them do their job of processing individuals as they come in, checking credentials, making sure that they are who they say they are.

“Outside of that, the Taliban have set up checkpoints,” he added. “We talked about this before. We’re in daily communication with Taliban commanders about who we want to see get in and what their credentials are, what they look like, what’s valid. And that communication happens literally every day. We have been nothing but open with the Taliban about who we expect them to let in.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday his group would no longer allow Afghan nationals to leave the country, telling reporters at a press conference in Kabul, “The way to the airport has been closed now. Afghans are not allowed to go there now, foreigners are allowed to go but we have stopped Afghan nationals to go because the crowd is more, there is danger that people will lose their lives, their might be a stampede.”

Flights out of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport are scheduled to continue through August 31, when the 5,800 American troops deployed to assist with evacuations are expected to leave the country.

Watch above via Fox News.

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