BRITISH foreign minister Dominic Raab said on Wednesday (25) that the deadline for evacuating people from Afghanistan was up to the last minute of this month.
Raab was asked after a White House spokesperson said at a briefing on Tuesday (24) they needed to check if the deadline for evacuations was up to the last minute of August 30 or August 31.
"We think it goes until the end of August, but the military planners will firm up the details for the precise time frame," Raab told BBC TV.
Raab said Britain hoped there would be a functioning airport in Kabul after the evacuations end.
"If we want to do this in a more managed way and really take the steep angle off the cliff edge, what we really could do with is the Taliban being able to run a functional airport in Kabul," Raab was quoted as saying by Sky News.
"I'm sure there will be various neighbouring countries that will want to see if they can help them keep that airport open or indeed whether they want to get in members of the previous government, or the officials, to do that job", he said.
He also said that almost all British citizens without dual nationality had been evacuated from Afghanistan.
"The lion share, almost of them who want to come out, have been brought home," Raab told Sky News.
He said in the last 24 hours some 2,000 people had been brought to Britain from Kabul.
(Reuters)
