These are dramatic hours in the offices ofUS embassy in Kabul. Since the first order to destroy sensitive documents arrived on Friday, the work has become hectic. And the fear of the arrival of the Taliban began to spread through the corridors of a building that is not just a diplomatic representation, but a symbol. As the embassy in Tehran had been during the Khomeini revolution or as it was in Saigon in 1975. The helicopters arrived at the crack of dawn, while some of the staff have already left the building in the night aboard. armored vehicles in the direction of the airport.
The Taliban press as Ghani leaves the country
The Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, allegedly asked the Taliban to avoid entry into Kabul at least until all US citizens are evacuated. For now, the guerrillas seem to have accepted the agreement. The “Koranic students” are not interested in entering the capital en masse with the risk of hitting an American citizen. Now they have victory in their hands: to commit such a mistake would mean unleashing the battalions of marines that have reached Accept to protect civilians during evacuation. And now that the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, left the country for Tajikistan (and perhaps with final destination in Russia), everything seems projected towards the victory of the forces of taliban.
The procedures for closing the embassy
For the United States, it is not just about closing a diplomatic mission. The Kabul embassy has been the heart of US politics for twenty years Afghanistan and a vital intelligence center. Here were thousands of people, including Afghans and Americans, who worked diligently with the local government, the Pentagon and the American administration. The documents contained on the servers and shelves of that place are of the highest priority for national security. Washington doesn’t want to make the mistake it made Teheran in 1979: for this reason the officials immediately activated the destruction of all documents, sheets, files, all sensitive materials, anything “that could be used by propaganda”. According to Axios, even computer desktops will need to be cleaned up immediately. Together with the embassy, the same procedures will also apply to the ambassador’s residence and to places routinely frequented by personnel, military personnel and journalists.
The US flag has already been lowered
All embassy staff could leave Afghanistan in the next few hours. It was thought to have until Tuesday, but things seem to have accelerated sharply as soon as Ghani left the country, so much so that the Cnn tells that the stars and stripes flag has already been lowered and handed over to the US diplomatic representative. The evacuation plan foresees that the first to leave the offices are the employees of the embassy, then the American citizens invited to leave the country and finally the people with special visas (SIV). The last to be exfiltrated are the men of the Diplomatic Security Service and the ambassador. It is his job to protect the flag and take it to a safe place, or have it returned directly to the United States. Many are already present at the airport, where there are news of a fire and some shooting: the American embassy, according to US sources, would have asked its fellow citizens to pay particular attention due to the rapid evolution of events. Chaos is rampant: the US presence is already in danger of being a memory.
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