By Ebi Kesiena
The Taliban has decided to let 200 US citizens and third-country nationals, left behind in Afghanistan after the August 31 deadline, to depart the country on chartered flights.
This was disclosed by a US Special Representative, Zalmay Khalilzad, who played a key role in pressing the Taliban to allow the departures.
The departures is expected on Thursday September 9, and an exact breakdown of how many US citizens and people from other nations will be on the flight has not been shared.
The official could not say whether these Americans and third-country nationals were among people who have been stranded for days in Mazar-i-Sharif, 260 miles north of Kabul on charter flights that were barred from taking off.
Planes chartered to carry people out of Afghanistan have been stuck at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport, with some organizers saying the State Department was not doing enough to facilitate their departure.
Recall that recently, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken had denied reports that the Taliban had blocked Americans attempting to fly out of a northern Afghan city. But he said that the militants had not allowed charter flights to depart because some people lacked valid travel documents.
