Afghanistan crisis: Austria says no refugees, Swiss plans summit

Austria won’t accept Afghan asylum seekers and will instead focus on assisting them locally, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said, according to excerpts of an interview published by broadcaster Puls 24.

 

The ruling People’s Party has taken a hard line on immigration amid international calls to help Afghans at risk of persecution after the US troop withdrawal. Kurz said Austria had already made a disproportionately high contribution, with more than 40,000 Afghans accepted in the past. The nation’s responsibility lies with helping improving security and women’s rights locally, he said.

 

Switzerland’s government is examining the possibility of hosting a summit on Afghanistan on Swiss soil. The government is evaluating its contribution to solving the crisis, and possibilities include a donor conference to negotiate humanitarian aid, creating a humanitarian corridor out of Afghanistan, or hosting diplomatic talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s former government, a local paper reported.      

 

Trump assails Biden for Afghanistan ‘humiliation’

 

Former President Donald Trump launched a sustained attack on President Joe Biden's handling of the retreat of US forces from Afghanistan, which he called "the greatest foreign policy humiliation" in US history. Trump, a Republican who has dangled the possibility of running again for president in 2024, has repeatedly blamed Biden, a Democrat, for Afghanistan's fall to the Islamist militant Taliban, even though the US withdrawal that triggered the collapse was negotiated by his own administration. (Reuters)

 

US may ask airlines to help with evacuees

 

Potential threats to Americans in Afghanistan are forcing the US military to get creative on ways to ferry evacuees to Kabul airport. A Pentagon spokesman said US commercial airlines may be asked to help transport the thousands of people fleeing Afghanistan. Biden said Friday the US had made “significant progress” securing the Kabul airport and evacuating US citizens, Afghan allies and others, even amid evidence the Taliban are cracking down on dissent. But the US embassy warned US citizens to avoid traveling to the airport. (Bloomberg)