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ISLAMABAD - The United States on Saturday hailed the Taliban's commitment that no one will be prevented from traveling out of Afghanistan after August 31, the deadline President Joe Biden has set for all U.S. and NATO troops to exit the country.
Zalmay Khalilzad, special U.S. envoy for Afghan peace, made the remarks a day after a central Taliban leader in a televised address said that Afghans with valid documents and passports would be free to travel to the country of their choice - by air or by land - beyond the deadline.
"The statement is positive. We, our allies, and the international community will hold them to these commitments," Khalilzad wrote on Twitter.
Friday's address by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, deputy head of the Taliban's Qatar-based political commission, was aimed at easing fears his Islamist movement might not permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals, and for Afghans who worked with foreign forces in the country past August 31.
"Let the foreign forces withdraw first ... and then our compatriots - whether they have worked with the Americans or otherwise - may leave the country if they want and for whatever reason there may be. All airports, particularly Kabul airport, will be open for their travel," Stanikzai said.
Thousands of people, including journalists, former government officials and civil society activists, have struggled to get on the last flights leaving the Afghan capital's beleaguered international airport before the deadline for the Western evacuation operation.
Suicide bomber
On Thursday, a suicide bomber blew himself up on the perimeter of Kabul's airport, killing about 170 people, including 13 U.S. service members. An Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the carnage.
The scramble to leave the country stemmed from fears the Taliban's return to power in Kabul would see the imposition of their strict version of Islamic laws in Afghanistan, which the fundamentalist group had enforced during its rule from 1996 to 2001.
The Taliban at the time barred women from leaving their homes without a male relative, barred girls from receiving an education, and banned music, among other controversial measures, leading to international isolation of Afghanistan.
The Islamist group has now promised to institute what it says will be an "inclusive Islamic government" in Kabul, saying the arrangement respects human rights, particularly the rights of women to study and work.
In his Friday speech, Stanikzai urged Afghans to unite to rebuild their war-ravaged country, saying trained and educated people also should come back to join the effort.
The Taliban seized control of the national capital on August 15, capping a weeklong military campaign that brought 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces under the group's control in the face of a dramatic collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and its security forces.
The Islamist group is under pressure from the U.S. and neighboring countries to live up to public pledges that it would include all Afghans in the way it runs the country and would respect human rights to avoid Afghanistan's international isolation.
The Taliban instructed female public health workers Friday to return to their regular duties, and they have allowed female television presenters to broadcast news as usual.
The governor of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, which is known as the Taliban's birthplace, earlier in the week told a gathering of Islamic clerics that men would not be forced to grow beards and people would not be forced to stop listening to music.
Critics have doubts
Domestic and foreign critics, however, remain skeptical about whether the Islamist group will deliver on its pledges.
"I think I should be really clear here: There's no rush to recognition of any sort by the United States or any international partners we have talked to," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday when asked if the Taliban were asking Washington for recognition.