State Department Ned Price Press Conference Transcript August 19: Afghanistan Update

Ned Price: (00:00)
… Afghanistan. First, as you’ve from my counterpart at the Pentagon this morning, 12 C-17s departed within the last 24 hours with more than 2000 passengers who arrived at safe havens. Since August 14th, we’ve air lifted 7000 total evacuees. I can also confirm there are 6000 people at the airport right now who have been fully processed by our consular team, and will soon board planes.

Ned Price: (00:00)
Overnight, we significantly expanded how many American citizens, locally employed staff, SIV applicants, and other vulnerable Afghans who were eligible for departure, and we offered them to consider transit to the airport. We’re aware of congestion around the airport. We are working closely with the Department of Defense to facilitate safe and orderly access for consular processing on the airport compound. US military and other country flights continued throughout the last 24 hours, and American citizens and legal permanent residents will be given the first opportunity to board, with other priority groups filling in seats from there.

Ned Price: (00:00)
We’re continuing to rapidly deploy additional consular officers to ensure we can welcome Americans and others, and will continue to do so over the coming days. The department is sending consular staffing teams to Qatar and Kuwait to assist with the transit effort, and we’re preparing teams to surge to other processing locations as well. Additional consular officers have also now landed in Kabul, and we will nearly double the number of consular officers on the ground by tomorrow, by Friday.

Ned Price: (00:00)
I can also announce that Ambassador Bass arrived in Kabul this morning to lead logistics coordination and consular efforts within the personnel who remain at the airport. As you heard Secretary Sherman say yesterday, our diplomatic and military personnel are working in lockstep towards the same goal, and that is to get as many people who want to leave Afghanistan and who are vulnerable to Taliban reprisals because they helped the United States and our allies and partners or who are otherwise at risk because of who they are or what they do or what they believe out of the country as quickly as possible.

Ned Price: (00:55)
Our diplomats around the world are tirelessly engaging with their counterparts to ensure transit and passage for Americans, vulnerable Afghans, and others. This is absolutely an all hands on deck effort to ensure the safety of our personnel and citizens, rally our allies and partners, and organize the evacuation of thousands and thousands of individuals. Additionally, Secretary Blinken spoke today with the G7 foreign ministers, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the high representative of the European Union to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. All leaders underscored the imperative of safe passage for those who wish to leave Afghanistan and the need for an inclusive political resolution that protects the fundamental human rights of all Afghans. The leaders agreed that the international community’s relationship with the Taliban will depend on their actions and not their words.

Ned Price: (00:55)
Secretary Blinken and the G7 foreign ministers also exchanged views on counter-terrorism, on humanitarian efforts, refugee migration, and they agreed to remain in close contact on all fronts going forward. Secretary Blinken thanked his foreign counterparts for their steadfast commitment to supporting the Afghan people.

Ned Price: (00:55)
With that, I am happy to turn to your questions.

Matt: (00:55)
Ned, can I ask you, this is an extremely logistical question, and I hope there would be a very short answer. Does Operation Allies Refuge now include all of the categories of people who can go out? That means SIVs, P1, P2 and this other at risk category, or does that term, Allies Refuge, only apply to SIVs?

Ned Price: (00:55)
So, Operation Allies Refuge-

Matt: (00:55)
People are getting briefed on different things all over town.

Ned Price: (00:55)
Understood, understood. It is a military operation. Operation Allies Refuge, it was a term coined by the Pentagon, so I need to refer you there to speak precisely to what that operation now entails, but what I will say more broadly, of course, is that Operation Allies Refuge in the first instance was an effort, an airlift operation, unprecedented airlift operation that no other administration either in the-

Matt: (04:15)
[crosstalk 00:04:15].

Ned Price: (04:15)
No, no, but I will get there. But that no other administration, either in the Afghan context or-

Matt: (04:15)
You can pat yourself on the back all you want. I just want to know, does it include all of these categories now or is it just the SIVs?

Ned Price: (04:15)
Matt, it was in the first instance, an airlift operation for SIVs.

Matt: (04:15)
Now what is it?

Ned Price: (04:15)
Now, of course what we’re doing is offering an airlift operation, we’re in the midst of an airlift operation for American citizens, for locally employed staff members, for SIVs, for vulnerable Afghans.

Matt: (04:15)
The entire evacuation effort is Operation Allies Refuge?

Ned Price: (04:15)
My point was that you’ll need to talk to DoD to understand exactly what OAR encompasses, but obviously we have a vast airlift operation ongoing now that encompasses all of those categories.

Matt: (05:00)
[inaudible 00:05:00] say that you don’t. Secondly, and I realize that and I want to make sure that this is understood, I understand that getting people out safely is the most important thing. But are there any COVID protocols for these flights?

Ned Price: (05:00)
So our first priority is to get as many people out as we can. What we are doing, depending on where these individuals go, and as you know, there are several transit countries, there sometimes will be testing in those third countries, but our first priority right now is to bring as many people to safety as we can.

Matt: (05:00)
So, there isn’t a protocol at the airport. If they are lucky enough to get through and get onto the, there’s no testing that happens beforehand? Because if you look at the pictures of packed transport planes, whatever, one or two people who are infected, that could be a disaster, especially when they arrive someplace. So anyway, you’re saying there aren’t.

Ned Price: (05:00)
When it comes to the transit countries, we are abiding by the regulations of-

Matt: (05:00)
I’m talking about in Kabul.

Ned Price: (05:00)
… those transit countries.

Matt: (05:00)
So there isn’t any testing that happens before you get on a plane?

Ned Price: (05:00)
In Kabul at the airport, we don’t at present have the capacity to test everyone on them.

Matt: (05:00)
Last thing, and I’ll be really brief because it was kind of answered last night, but there were a bunch of reports last evening about this contingency and crisis response bureau proposal that had been made by the previous administration. I just want to know if you guys still think that getting rid of it was the right thing to do. Was it a necessary element of the bureaucracy?

Ned Price: (05:00)
Well, I just want to correct something you said. We didn’t get rid of any bureau.

Matt: (05:00)
Well, I know, it had never been created.

Ned Price: (05:00)
The bureau was never created. The bureau was proposed by the previous administration in its final days. Importantly, when it was conceived, it was not proposed to introduce any new capabilities whatsoever. And that may have been the cause for concern on a bipartisan basis on Capitol Hill. As you know, there were holds on this idea on a bipartisan basis. Republicans and Democrats opposed this. And in fact the memo that explains what this proposal was to do actually was explicit in saying that it would not bring any new capabilities onboard. So when this administration came in, we studied the issue and we determined, just as lawmakers on a bipartisan basis had determined, that a new bureau, a whole new structure was not the right way to go, that we could make improvements in other areas, and that’s what we’ve continued to do.

Ned Price: (05:00)
Kyleigh.

Kyleigh: (05:00)
Okay. Just numbers here. How many Afghans, SIVs, P1, P2, however they’re being considered, have been evacuated since August 14th? I know we have the 7000 number in total for people, but how many Afghans are in that group?

Ned Price: (05:00)
Well, the 7000 figure, at this point I’m not in a position to break that down much further. As you know, it consists of American citizens, it consists of our locally employed staff who are Afghans, it consists of third country nationals, as we have worked very closely with our partners on the ground to help bring some of their nationals to safety, and vulnerable Afghans. So right now, I’m not in a position to break that down further.

Kyleigh: (05:00)
Can you break down the 6000? Do you not have the information?

Ned Price: (05:00)
Break down 6000?

Kyleigh: (09:07)
The same way that you [inaudible 00:09:07]. The 6000 that are waiting to board, what about them? How many of them are SIVs?

Ned Price: (09:07)
So, obviously they’re at the airport right now, so this is really data in real time that I just don’t have access to. What I can say is that overnight, we notified all Americans who had expressed an interest in being relocated to consider traveling to the airport. We notified our locally employed staff, Afghans who worked at our embassy in Kabul, and we also notified a segment of the SIV population. So, of the 6000 that are at the airport now, that is the general make-up.

Kyleigh: (09:07)
So, are you planning to give us a breakdown? Are you working on that? Or is that not playing your-

Ned Price: (09:07)
I expect we will have greater fidelity in all of these numbers as this continues, yes.

Kyleigh: (09:07)
So second question, there are reports of problems with these Afghans who you’ve told to come to the airport not being able to get into the airport because gates are closed. Is there anything that the State Department is doing to help them get into the airport at this time?

Ned Price: (09:07)
So, what I can say, and I’m seeing the same reports on Twitter that you are. And every report of someone unable for whatever reason, to reach the airport is something we take very seriously. Our imperative is to relocate as many people as quickly as we can, and we’ve seen the reports of congestion. My understanding is that things are moving quite efficiently at this hour at the airport now, but every report we see of someone unable to reach the airport is of concern. We are doing everything we can mechanically, logistically, but then of course there’s also the diplomatic element to this as well.

Ned Price: (09:07)
We are making very clear, together with our international partners, more than 100 countries have come together, the G7 mentioned this today as well, that safe passage should be guaranteed for all of those who wish to transit to the airport. That is something we have focused on. We have focused on it in the Doha channel. We are focusing on it, and by we, I mean both State and the Department of Defense, which now has a channel with the Taliban on the ground in Afghanistan, and we have had what I would characterize as productive conversations about the need, the imperative of ensuring safe passage.

Ned Price: (09:07)
Now of course, we’re seeing some of the same reports. When it comes to American citizens, we have a relatively large cadre of consular officers on the ground in Kabul right now. They are in regular and constant contact with American citizens. I can tell you that they have received, as of a couple hours ago, a small handful of reports from American citizens who weren’t able to reach the airport for whatever reason. What we do know is that 6000 people are now at the airport. 6000 people have been able to make it, have made it through the processing, and as of a couple hours ago, we had received only a small handful of reports otherwise from American citizens.

Ned Price: (12:21)
[Humara 00:12:21]

Humara: (12:21)
So then, just to follow-up on that. You say you’re doing everything you can, but also yesterday, Defense Secretary Austin said the United States does not have capacity to expand the operations into Kabul and help people get to the airport. Are you considering seeking help on this from any other country who may have better reach on the ground, or are you just going to leave this to the people who are trying to get to the airport?

Ned Price: (12:21)
Humara, what I would say is that no country has more capability inside of Afghanistan than the United States, and in fact we are working-

Humara: (12:21)
But truly, this is one thing-

Ned Price: (12:21)
… states. And in fact, we are working-

Reporter 1: (13:02)
[crosstalk 00:13:02] this is one thing you can’t do and defense secretary has said this and it was a fair and square statement, so I’m asking if United States does not have this capacity, are you asking other countries who may have better reach on the ground to do something about this or is this going to be left to the hands of [crosstalk 00:13:23]-

Ned Price: (13:02)
My point is that you will be hard pressed to find a country that has the capacity on the ground, if any such country exists, in a position to do that. We have been working very closely with our partners on the ground at HKIA. Many of them have come to us, asking to have their people go out on our planes, for example. So the United States military is undertaking a gargantuan airlift operation right now. That itself is a major undertaking. You’ve heard from the secretary, you’ve heard from the chairman of the resources that are involved in that. At this point, we don’t have the resources to go beyond the airport compound.

Reporter 1: (13:02)
Just one final thing. How many more Americans left in Afghanistan? This was raised in Pentagon and they referred them to this place.

Ned Price: (13:02)
Well, we have been consistent in-

Reporter 2: (13:02)
In not answering.

Ned Price: (13:02)
… in explaining that, in every country, Americans register with the embassy, so it’s a voluntary thing.

Reporter 1: (13:02)
Surely. But you understand this is a question that also defines the length of this mission?

Ned Price: (13:02)
It does. It does. And the president has been very clear that we are going to do as much as we can for as long as we can and our first priority is the safe repatriation of the American people. So what we did overnight was to send a message to all American citizens who had expressed an interest in repatriation. We have already repatriated many Americans, just today there were 6,000 more people, many of whom are American, U.S. citizens, at the airport compound and I would expect in the coming days.

Christina: (13:02)
Are those 6,000 people, you’ve said they’ve been processed. Are they clear to continue on once they land in Qatar, or do they have to be held in that facility?

Ned Price: (13:02)
So these are different categories of individuals. Some will be American citizens, some will be Afghans, some will be third party nationals. So it really depends on where they fall on that scale.

Christina: (15:26)
[crosstalk 00:15:26] and as far as the processing at Qatar, the DOD said today you’ve got the aspirational capacity is 5-9,000 a day. All those people are flying in, they’re being held at the base. My understanding is processing there is very slow, it’s triple heat, they have MREs only, there are limited places to sleep. What is the status of getting those people and out the door and where are they going? And if you can’t say or you don’t know, how is that possible at this point?

Ned Price: (15:26)
So Christina, ultimately the final destination will depend on if you’re a U.S. citizen, you’re coming back to your home country. If you are a third country national, you’re going back to your home country. If you’re an Afghan national, we have heard generous offers. Well, first I should say, those SIVs, special immigrate visa holders who have completed the rigorous security vetting process, they will come here, just as 2,000 of them have under Operation Allies Refuge.

Christina: (16:24)
[crosstalk 00:16:24]

Ned Price: (16:24)
So when it comes to SIVs who are not at a particular stage, when it comes to vulnerable Afghans who aren’t part of the SIV program, we have heard generous offers from countries around the world. Let me just give you an update on where we are.

Ned Price: (16:24)
First, the U.S. Embassies in Doha and Kuwait, they have been working with the military in their Qatari and Kuwaiti counterparts respectively to receive flights and to ensure the safe transit of passengers to onward destination. As I mentioned, we’re sending additional consular officers to both Qatar and Kuwait to help with this processing. We’re very grateful to both countries that they have offered their territory for this processing.

Ned Price: (16:24)
When it comes to Europe, Secretary Blinken had a good conversation yesterday with Albanian Prime Minister Rama about Albania’s offer to host Afghans in need. The secretary thanked the prime minister for continuing Albania’s proud tradition of sheltering people in need and they affirmed the close partnership between the two countries. I mentioned this statement yesterday, but those of you who haven’t seen it, the prime minister’s explanation for why Albania was doing this, predicated on his own country’s history. It’s quite powerful, quite moving.

Reporters: (17:40)
[crosstalk 00:17:40]-

Ned Price: (18:19)
We are in discussions with other European allies on this same basis. I’m not in a position to name them right now, but stay tuned. We also deeply appreciate Uganda’s generous offer of assistance to host Afghan evacuees on a temporary basis. In the Western hemisphere, of course you’re all familiar with the very generous offer from our neighbor to the north, the Canadians have expressed a willingness to open their doors to vulnerable Afghans. We’re extraordinarily grateful. Mexico and Chile as well, have announced their intention to aid vulnerable Afghans with refugee status or resettlement. Yes, [inaudible 00:18:19]?

Reporter 4: (18:19)
[crosstalk 00:18:19] what is your processing capacity in Doha? If 5-9,000 are coming in, how many of those people who need processing, who don’t have visas, who can’t just get on a plane, how many can you process per day and then secondly, are you asking for any kind of humanitarian assistant, either at the airport or at the facility in Doha, where we’re hearing, especially at the airport, even Americans who got in are saying there’s no separate line for U.S. citizens, there’s minimal toilet facilities, there’s nowhere to sit, they’re sitting outside? It looks pretty bad.

Ned Price: (18:55)
So our goal is to move individuals through those facilities as quickly as we can. That’s part of the reason why we have [inaudible 00:18:55] consular officers to both places.

Reporter 4: (18:55)
I know what the goal is, but do you know what your capacity is and are you asking for humanitarian assistance?

Ned Price: (18:55)
So we are able to process hundreds upon hundreds of Afghans in each facility per day. As I said, there are other generous offers. I expect our capacity will be able to speak to a much greater capacity in the coming days as well, that will allow us to process thousands of vulnerable Afghans per day. Yes, please?

Reporter 5: (18:55)
Thank you very much. Nice to see you again.

Ned Price: (18:55)
Same.

Reporter 5: (19:27)
[inaudible 00:19:27] again. I have a quick question on the Afghanistan and other issue too and our allies are concerned about the U.S.’s security credibility, how do you think the Afghanistan crisis impacted the credibility of the United States security commitment to its allies? Secondly, secondly, last time as President Biden mentioned about that, the United States military would be [inaudible 00:20:06] without the national interest, what if there is no interest in the United States and in the countries that have made this security commitment with the countries such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan? Do you have any comment on that?

Ned Price: (19:27)
Could you repeat the first part of that second question?

Reporter 5: (19:27)
First part of the second question?

Ned Price: (19:27)
Yes.

Reporter 5: (19:27)
What if there is no interest in the United States and the countries that have made a security commitment with the countries such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan?

Ned Price: (19:27)
Great. So let me take your first question first. It is safe to say that this administration has prioritized our system of alliances and partnerships in profound ways. And we’ve done that because we recognize them as a profound source of strength. In the context of Afghanistan, and I spoke to this a bit yesterday, it is precisely why Secretary Blinken, on one of his, I believe it was his second trip overseas, went to Brussels and went to consult with NATO allies together with Secretary of Defense Austin.

Ned Price: (19:27)
It’s precisely why we returned to Brussels just a couple weeks later, because there’s always been the mantra, the NATO mantra when it comes to Afghanistan, in together, adjust together, out together. That’s always been the understanding. We did all of this and have continued to do all of this in close coordination with our NATO allies. Just today, Secretary Blinken met with the G7. This was a topic of discussion at the leader’s level as well, when President Biden was in Europe meeting with the G7, with the EU, with NATO as well.

Ned Price: (19:27)
I think the other point is that our strategic competitors would love nothing more than to see the United States bogged down in a conflict for another two years, four years, 20 years. A conflict that has come at tremendous opportunity cost for the United States. What we are doing is focusing on the threats and the opportunities that matter most to the American people, to our safety, to our security, to our prosperity. It’s part of the reason why you’ve seen such a focus of this administration on partners and alliances around the world, but also in the Indo-Pacific, and the commitment we have made to our system of alliances in that region.

Ned Price: (19:27)
The first countries that Secretary Blinken visited were the Republic of Korea and Japan. We have invested deeply in ASEAN. Ambassador Sherman was in the region recently. We have met with ASEAN as a block, also individually with member states. So what I can tell you is that this administration values our alliances and partnerships for what they are but also for what they represent. They represent a source of strength for us. As I said yesterday, they are a source of envy for our adversaries. We recognize that, it’s precisely why we’ve invested such in them.

Reporters: (23:53)
[crosstalk 00:23:53] just wanted to ask-

Reporter 5: (23:53)
[crosstalk 00:23:53] National Security Advisor Sullivan, he take my questions that Tuesday, what he said, they record, the president, as he said that repeatedly, has no intention of a [inaudible 00:24:09] down of [inaudible 00:24:11] Korea or from Europe and where we have [inaudible 00:24:16] presidencies for a very long time. Not in the middle of a civil war, but there with the potential of an external enemy and to protect our allies against that external enemy, so it is fundamentally different kind of situation from one [inaudible 00:24:36] or presented within Afghanistan.

Reporter 5: (23:53)
So do you think the Korean War is a civil war or an invasion by an external enemy just like North Korea? What are United States thoughts this Korean War is?

Ned Price: (23:53)
Well, we’ve been very clear about what matters most to us when it comes to the Korean peninsula. In fact, we did an entire policy review. And the outcome of that review, as we’ve said before, was that our focus will continue to be on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. The denuclearization, which will work to advance our national security interests, but also the interests of Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Ned Price: (23:53)
We have stood together with our allies, not only in the context of North Korea’s, the DPRK’s, nuclear capabilities, but also its ballistic missile capabilities, which of course are a profound menace to both Japan and the ROK. We’ve also said when it comes to animosity, when it comes to the relationship between South Korea and the DPRK, we are firmly on the side of engagement, we are supportive of the inter-Korean dialogue-

Ned Price: (26:00)
We are supportive of the inter-Korean dialogue. We are supportive of efforts to forge better relations between South Korea and between the DPRK. All the while, we are focusing on these humanitarian issues, the humanitarian plight of the people of North Korea. That’s what matters most to us. That’s been the focus and that’s what we continue to focus on. Yes, Will?

Will: (26:00)
I’ll ask broadly on the SIV program. There’s some concern that vulnerable Afghans who’ve helped the U.S. forces, especially if they’re not near Kabul, will have trouble getting out. And I’m just wondering why the State Department didn’t surge more effort toward the SIV program. We’ve talked about some of the details, but obviously, this administration inherited a plan to exit Afghanistan, follow through on that plan, granted there are some backlogs. But we are still getting pretty small numbers of SIVs coming through in March. Why didn’t this administration surge that earlier? Why wait until summertime before getting larger numbers of those processed?

Ned Price: (26:00)
Well, you mentioned the backdrop and that’s where I’ll start, because it’s worth explaining a bit of the context of the SIV program and what we inherited. So before January 20th of this year, this would be June of 2020, there was actually an Inspector General report into the state of the SIV program over successive administrations. This was a program that began in 2008 as I recall. What the Inspector General identified was chronic shortages in staffing, a lack of a coordinating official and a bureaucratic 14 step process that was enshrined in statute.

Ned Price: (26:00)
So that’s what we inherited. By the time this administration took office on January 20th, there had not been a single SIV interview in months. In fact, the last interview was on March 20th of 2020, and that of course was due to the COVID protocols. Within two weeks of this administration taking office, SIV interviews in Kabul had resumed. They were reestablished on February 2nd. On February 4th, just to demonstrate the commitment and to signal the commitment and to jumpstart this effort, President Biden issued an executive order, and he directed the Department of State to undertake a review of the program. We did so. That review allowed us to identify and to take remedial action on process improvements, and we found ways we can direct additional resources to the SIV program, and I’ll give you a couple of examples of that.

Ned Price: (26:18)
On April 1st, additional SIV adjudicators were dispatched to Kabul, and the embassy significantly raised its goal of how many interviews it could conduct per week. Later that month of course, the embassy did go on, ordered departure, as the security environment and the broader environment began to change. So as you know, it goes without saying, we brought people back to the United States, but we actually surged at that time additional consular officers, because even as we were reducing the overall footprint of our embassy, we wanted to ensure we were doing everything we can to actually augment the capabilities for our SIV processing at that time.

Ned Price: (26:18)
By the end of May, given these steps, we had shaved more than a year off the average processing time for the SIV program. Other challenges arose. As you recall, the embassy in Kabul was struck by a fairly profound outbreak of COVID-19. Even despite the COVID-19 outbreak at the embassy, the embassy was able to issue more than 1,000 visas during the time of the outbreak. That was roughly mid-June to early July. On July 14th, we announced something, as I said before, that something no administration had done before, an actual airlift operation. The SIV program was designed to give visas for these Afghans who had stood by us but it was never contemplated.

Will: (26:18)
This could be a success in the end, and if not, why didn’t you stay longer in Afghanistan to get these people out? Is it going to be a success? How many people are going to come out in the end?

Ned Price: (26:18)
So Will, it is our intention to bring to the United States as many SIV applicants as we possibly can, and we put in process the steps that actually enabled us to process at a much greater clip. We went from-

Speaker 1: (30:43)
[inaudible 00:30:43] on what states, what point they need to be in the SIV process to either get through the gate or get on the plane?

Ned Price: (30:43)
I’m happy to tell you that. Let me just give you one data point. With the augmentation of consular staff in the embassy in Kabul and also back here in the Washington DC area, the number of visas we are able to issue went from 100 in March to 813 this month, 813 visas per week. That just shows you the commitment we have. Now, Christina, to your question when it comes to SIVs and who precisely we’re relocating at this time, we have sent messages to those who have completed a certain stage of the security vetting procedure.

Speaker 1: (30:43)
What is that stage, I’m asking? Do they have to have consular approval?

Ned Price: (30:43)
They have completed the vetting procedures. They have completed the vetting procedures, that they should consider coming to the airport and we’d be in a position to relocate them.

Speaker 2: (30:43)
Something on that, Pentagon, your counterpart in Pentagon today, you know there’s a number of 5,000 to 9,000, and then yesterday, 2,000 people have been evacuated, so there were questions about why that number was less. And then he said obviously there are a number of steps regarding the visa application before putting people on planes, which suggested that at the moment, you’re not using these planes at full capacity because of bureaucratic red tape? And if that is the case or if it’s somewhere even close to that, will these consular officers finally sort of speed that process up? When do you think you will get up to 5,000 to 9,000?

Ned Price: (30:43)
So as we said, by tomorrow, we will have just about doubled the consular capacity we have available at the embassy at the airport compound in Kabul.

Speaker 2: (30:43)
Does that mean 5,000 people on the plane?

Ned Price: (30:43)
It means we are going to process as many people working with the military as we possibly can.

Speaker 3: (30:43)
Yeah, you were doing that yesterday too.

Ned Price: (30:43)
Since this effort has begun, yes.

Speaker 3: (30:43)
Well, people are asking for numbers. And I realize that they’re difficult to get, but it’s always influx. But you just talk about how there are 6,000 people waiting at the airport, which is one thing. Does the military at the airport really have enough space for 6,000 people to live hygienically for 12 to 24 hours?

Ned Price: (30:43)
We expect about 20 flights to go out tonight.

Speaker 3: (30:43)
Tonight and tomorrow, so the 6,000 who are there, they got in today, right?

Ned Price: (30:43)
That’s the goal.

Speaker 3: (30:43)
They got in today.

Ned Price: (30:43)
Today, 6,000 people have been processed in the airport.

Speaker 3: (30:43)
And they’ll be leaving tonight and early, I guess tomorrow.

Ned Price: (30:43)
We expect 20 flights, DoD had said will go out tonight. This is an operation that will continue at as fast a clip as we can possibly manage. I think you’ve heard me say that as we have increased our throughput capacity at the airport, we have reached out to more and more individuals, instructing them to consider traveling to the airport if they are able to do so. So that is why you have seen more people processed today. Our hope is that tomorrow, we’ll be able to process even more, but ultimately, the metric we care about most is how many people we are able to repatriate here to the United States or bring to third countries. That is our goal. Our goal is to maximize that figure. Connor?

Connor: (30:43)
The SIV program does not apply to Afghan security forces, only to interpreters and folks of that kind. There are reports, credible reports that they are being hunted down. There are Air Force pilots pleading in audio messages for help. There are commandos that the U.S. government has spent years training who are being assassinated. What are you doing for them and are you aware of these reports? Can you confirm any of these reports that they are being hunted down?

Ned Price: (30:43)
We know that at least one NGO, I’ve seen a report that at least one NGO has put together with this, so I’m just not in a position to confirm those details. As I said, every time we see a detail like this, we take it extraordinarily seriously, and we do what we can to follow up on it. You’re right that in most instances, someone who for example, has served in the Afghan military or the Afghan police force probably would not qualify for SIV status. But SIV status is not the only status that we are factoring into our calculus. There are other forms of, there are other pathways to safety, either through UNHCR, the United States, one of our partners. We’ve talked about priority one refugee status. We’ve talked about priority two refugee status. There are individuals who over the course of many years have worked closely with NGOs, with partner governments, and those NGOs and partner governments are referring them for various refugee statuses that may be available elsewhere.

Ned Price: (30:43)
So there are different avenues for people who don’t qualify for SIV, and we are doing all we can to support as many people as we can.

Shawn: (30:43)
There are skirmishes today over the Afghan national flag being raised. Today’s Afghanistan’s Independence Day. There are also folks calling for resistance, including First Vice President Saleh. What do you say to the folks who say that they want to resist Taliban control of the country, including through force? What do you say to the folks who are in the streets protesting today because they don’t want Taliban government?

Ned Price: (30:43)
Well, we certainly don’t want to see a government that denies the rights that are guaranteed to people everywhere. We don’t want to see that either, but it’s not just about us. In addition to the other elements that the G7 discussed today, one of the key points of discussion was about the expectations of this forum for any future Afghan government. We have seen consensus within the G7. We have seen consensus within the UN Security Council. We have seen consensus from the dozens of countries who signed on to a statement just a couple of nights ago about the status of women and girls.

Ned Price: (30:43)
So again, the international community is united on this. No one-

Shawn: (30:43)
Resistance?

Ned Price: (30:43)
Look, no one wants to see a government that will deprive the rights of its people, the rights of its women and girls. We know that no society can thrive or potentially even continue to exist if it ignores the rights of half of its population. That has been our point. Shawn?

Shawn: (37:58)
[inaudible 00:37:58] United States actually sent arms saying that the U.S. is the arsenal democracy. Does the United States have any contact with him in [inaudible 00:38:06]? Does the United States have any interest in sending a military relationship?

Ned Price: (37:58)
We have, without speaking to this individual specifically, we have been contact with stakeholders who are engaged in the inter-Afghan negotiations. As you know, the Afghans, that is to say, the representatives of the Islamic Republic, representatives of the Taliban, continue to hold discussions, continue to discuss the political settlement. We have continued to be in touch with representatives of the Islamic Republic, as well as representatives of the Taliban. Ambassador Khalilzad remains in Doha. Much of the Taliban delegation, if not all of it, has relocated from Doha to Afghanistan. We’ve continued to be in touch with those representatives over the phone. We’ve been in touch directly on the ground with them as well, as well as Islamic Republic representatives.

Shawn: (37:58)
President Ghani, you’ve mentioned yesterday-

Ned Price: (37:58)
… representatives.

Speaker 4: (37:58)
President Ghani, you mentioned yesterday, or deputy secretary Sherman said he’s no longer a factor. Is he one of these stakeholders that you see as having an interest in the future of Afghanistan?

Ned Price: (37:58)
My understanding is that we have not had any contact with president Ghani since he fled the country.

Speaker 4: (37:58)
Can I just ask one more? You had a readout a couple days ago of the secretary’s talks with foreign minister Qureshi. Pakistan obviously has a complicated relationship in Afghanistan. What was the nature of your talks? What are you looking for from Pakistan now that the Taliban is effectively in control?

Ned Price: (39:00)
Well, we did issue a readout of that. The point we’ve made to all of Afghanistan’s neighbors is that it is in everyone’s interests to do what we can to secure, or to help facilitate stability, security, some sort of political settlement. Countries that border Afghanistan also face a particular challenge when it comes to refugees, and we have continued to encourage countries in the region to be welcoming of the most vulnerable, those who are seeking a better life. Whether it is Pakistan, whether it is the PRC, whether it is other countries in the region that have a stake in Afghanistan. We have continued to have constructive conversations with all of them on this. I think the fact of the matter is here, when it comes to the PRC, obviously our interests are rarely aligned, but we have had what we would call constructive good conversations about the situation going forward. We’ll continue to discuss not only with our closest allies and partners, but partners in the region about what together we can do to support the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan.

Speaker 5: (39:00)
Can I ask one question about capacity? I know we’re dwelling on this, but I think it’s important. So, does the state department believe that the surge that you guys are putting forth in consular affairs officers to the airport will be sufficient to boost the processing, so that you guys are able to reach the Pentagon’s capacity of getting out 5000 to 9000 people, or are you still looking for more people to actually get to that capacity?

Ned Price: (39:00)
So, by the time we will have doubled our consular capacity, it is our current belief that we will have the capacity we need to process as many individuals as we can to fill the flights. But we’re always going to be evaluating what we could be doing differently, what we could be doing more effectively. If it turns out that we need additional consular capacity in Kabul, we won’t hesitate to do that. But right now we are confident that we have, and with the additional reinforcements we’ll have what we need.

Speaker 5: (39:00)
And why haven’t we heard from the secretary of state this week?

Ned Price: (39:00)
The secretary of state this week, you heard from him on Sunday, you have heard and seen that he has been working the phones with his counterparts, he has been at the White House the past few days now. He was just there this morning, he’s been meeting regularly with the president, he’s been regularly meeting with the broader national security team. He has been deeply engaged on this, and I expect you’ll have an opportunity to hear from him again soon. Connor?

Connor: (39:00)
You said that the talks with the Taliban on the ground have been constructive in allowing people access to the airport, but this is day four, day five now of people having trouble, including US citizens, US lawful permanent residents. How can you say that it’s been constructive, if you’re still having problems, if people are still facing violence when they’re trying to make their way to the airport?

Ned Price: (39:00)
Connor, every single report of someone being blocked from access to the airport, it’s a cause for concern. When it comes-

Connor: (43:00)
[crosstalk 00:43:00] elevate or escalate your-

Ned Price: (43:00)
Here are the data points I can give you. We’ve seen I’m sure the same reports you’re seeing on Twitter. When it comes to American citizens, we have had, as of earlier today, only a handful of reports. Our consular staff on the ground has had only a handful of reports from American citizens who have been unable to reach the airport for whatever reason. We are continuing to do all we can with the international community, directly with our engagement with the Taliban to facilitate access and safe passage to the airport. We’ll continue to work on this through every tool that we have and that’s appropriate.

Speaker 5: (43:49)
Just one more, just real quick. I understand we’ve established that there’s not going to be assistance for [inaudible 00:43:49], Pentagon knew this morning or this afternoon are saying there’s no capacity for us to go and get people out of these other areas and get them to Kabul. Is there any concern that this documentation, any kind of notice or anything like that, because of these checkpoints [inaudible 00:44:03], is going to cause more of an issue for these people to access this area? And then just to double down, I mean we have no numbers, I know that you’ve mentioned the 6000, 7000, you can’t break it down. You have said specifically that you have notified all Americans that are trying to get out of state. Is there any rough idea of a number, any characterization that you can give? Clearly they have given you this information, clearly they are trying to get out. Is there any idea of how many Americans are still trying to get out of Afghanistan?

Ned Price: (43:49)
We have been in contact with the Americans who have requested to be repatriated. We’re just not in a position to give a number right now. We’re more broadly not in a position to offer an aggregate figure, because we are putting forward offers to individuals who may be interested in relocating. In some cases, they may opt not to come to the airport. They may opt not to be relocated for whatever reason.

Christina: (45:03)
[crosstalk 00:45:03] because we did this during COVID. When you guys pulled people out of different countries during COVID-

Ned Price: (45:03)
Christina …

Christina: (45:03)
You could give us a country by country breakdown.

Ned Price: (45:03)
We’re talking about a very different universe here. We’re talking about American citizens, we’re talking about third country nationals, we’re talking about Afghan nationals.

Speaker 5: (45:03)
She was talking about American citizens.

Christina: (45:03)
We’re asking about American citizens.

Speaker 5: (45:03)
Specifically American citizens.

Christina: (45:03)
You know how many Americans have contacted you and asked to get out. Why can’t you tell us?

Speaker 5: (45:22)
There has to be some kind of list, right? You have this [inaudible 00:45:22] and if you’re making these deals to people who have not specifically reached out to you to say, “Hey, we’re trying to get out of here.” Is that going to make this a longer process, going back to her question, is this going to extend this mission further and further passed that August 31st deadline?

Ned Price: (45:22)
The president has spoken to this, you’ve heard from the Pentagon this morning as well. We are going to do as much as we can for as long as we can. We’re going to being home all the Americans who wish to come home, but I just can’t put a firm number on it for you right now, but we have that commitment to the American people.

Speaker 4: (45:22)
Can I just ask again, I mean, the president also said, “Bring all the Americans back.” What about SIVs after, if it happens to go beyond August 31st, is the United States willing to consider extending it, not for American citizens, but for SIVs?

Ned Price: (45:22)
Again, it’s not a hypothetical I want to entertain right now. We have a number of days until August 31st. We are going to do as much as we can for as long as we can. Our goal in all of this is to relocate as many people to safety as we possibly can. At the same time, there’s also the imperative that we not expose our diplomats, our service members, other Americans to undue risk, and so we are always going to be keeping an eye on the security environment, the threat situation, weighing all of these things, but what I can tell you resolutely is that we’re going to do as much as we can, for as long as we can, for as many people as we can. Yes? In the back.

Speaker 6: (45:22)
I want to follow up on US credibility overseas, because of events in Afghanistan, some of your allies have been questioning whether Washington will actually come to their defense in the event of a crisis. And apparently China State Media have been using this to sow doubt in the minds of Chinese people. I know both you and national security advisor Jake Sullivan have reiterated your commitment to allies, including Taiwan, but my question is, is the US prepared to go the extra mile and offer greater clarity on your commitment to Taiwan, that is getting rid of the decades long strategic ambiguity policy? And relating to that, if I may, would you consider sending a senior official to visit Taipei soon, just to offer some sort of assurances to Taiwanese people? Thank you.

Ned Price: (47:48)
Well, we will continue to support a peaceful solution of [inaudible 00:47:48] relations, consistent with the wishes and best interests of the Taiwan people. We urge Beijing, as we have before, to cease its military, diplomatic, economic pressure against Taiwan, and instead to engage in meaningful dialogue. We do have an abiding interest in peace and security across the Taiwan strait. We consider this central to the security and stability of the broader region, of the broader Indo Pacific. Events elsewhere in the world, whether that’s in Afghanistan or any other region are not going to change that. When it comes to our engagement with the people on Taiwan, we’ve spoken to this before. We believe in deepening those connections consistent with our one China policy, with the Taiwan relations act, with the six assurances and the three communicates. That remains our policy, and you have seen within the past couple of months, we issued revised contact guidance that allows us to deepen those relationships between the American people and the people on Taiwan, and that is what we will continue to do. Thank you all very much.

Speaker 7: (47:48)
Thank you.