The Biden administration is attempting to conclude a concurrence with Qatar to briefly house a huge number of Afghans who worked with the United States and their families and are escaping their nation as the security circumstance break down, as per a source acquainted with the continuous conversations. The source said it very well may be upwards of 8,000 Afghans however advised the deal isn’t final.
A State Department representative told CNN, “We are evaluating all available options. We have no announcements to make on third-country relocation sites for Afghan SIV applicants.”
Should an understanding be reached, an initial group of around 1,000 to 2,000 Afghans is expected in Doha “soon,” the source said.
The Biden administration has been thinking about utilizing third nations to deal with the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa candidates, and on Thursday the Pentagon reported it would send around 1,000 soldiers to Qatar in the coming days to work with the processing. Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally talked with his Qatari counterpart on Thursday and the State Department said he thanked Qatar for supporting “U.S. efforts to provide safety and security to Afghan nationals.”
Qatar’s protection serve is normal in Washington one week from now for comment.
A Qatari representative didn’t promptly react to a request for comment.
Pressed Friday evening by CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the Biden administration’s plan to house Afghans in Qatar, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger – who filled in as an Air Force pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq – said, “It’s great the Qatar option is possibly there.”
“The administration needs to continue to lean forward as hard as they can,” Kinzinger said.
Kinzinger recently said he went against the Biden administration’s decision to pull out US troops from Afghanistan and raised worries that the Afghan government would fall after US troops left.
“There is a lot of Afghans that basically fought with us that are going to die and have died already because of lack of planning, and it’s sad,” he said.
“Let’s save as many as we can because it makes a difference, but I don’t think it’s going to lessen the stain on us right now.”
