Presidency of Donald Trump

US President Joe Biden has said US troops may stay in Afghanistan beyond his withdrawal deadline, as armed Taliban fighters kept desperate evacuees from reaching Kabul's airport.

Mr Biden wants US forces out by the end of this month, but up to 15,000 US citizens are stranded in the country.

The US president told in tv interview the turmoil in Kabul was unavoidable.

Turkey is ready for any kind of cooperation for the comfort of the Afghan people, well-being of its Turkish kin and protection of its interests in Afghanistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, stressing the continued military presence of the Turkish troops at Kabul airport will be to the benefit of the new Afghan administration.

The EU will have to talk with the Taliban after the group seized control of Afghanistan before officially recognising them, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after online meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"The Taliban have won the war, so we will have to talk with them," he pointed out, while stressing this does not mean moving quickly to official recognition. 

China is looking to fill political and security void in the region after the US troops and the West left Afghanistan, for which it had long been prepared, writes Jessica Taneja.

Jessica Taneja is a journalist based in Delhi. 

The EU will have to talk with the Taliban after the group seized control of Afghanistan before recognising them, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday. "The Taliban have won the war, so we will have to talk with them," he pointed out, while stressing this does not mean moving quickly to official recognition. He was speaking after a EU foreign affairs ministers online meeting.

According to the first recordings, a group of people was shot, who spread a large Afghan flag widely. It is stated on social networks that journalists were not spared either.
The flag of Afghanistan was taken down in every place that the Taliban conquered during their short offensive on the territory of the entire country, launched at the moment when the American troops withdrew.

According to the report, he arrived late last night in the second largest city in that country, Kandahar.
The city was the spiritual center of the Taliban and the capital during their first rule from 1996 to 2001.
Baradar returned to Afghanistan from Qatar, where he led negotiations with the United States for months, and then peace talks on Afghanistan.

The Taliban have offered a pledge of reconciliation, vowing no revenge against opponents and to respect women's rights in a "different" rule of Afghanistan from two decades ago.

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He added that Brussels would have to co-operate with the radical Afghan movement as they emerged victorious from a decade-long conflict.
The group now has full control of Afghanistan, following the complete collapse of the US-backed Afghan government in 2001.

Former Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who is now the president of the Serbian parliament, said on Tuesday that negotiations between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban were held in secret in Serbia a few years ago.