White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday would not be drawn on whether troops will be out of Afghanistan and home by the 4th of July, and said only the US remains “on the timeline that the President [Joe Biden] announced just a few weeks ago”.
She stated however that the Biden administration’s focus at the moment is on expediting the process of issuing visas for Afghan translators.
This comes after some media reports indicated this week that sources have said all US troops will be home by America’s Independence Day.
CNN on Thursday was one media outlet to report that American troops will be home within days.
The UK’s Daily Mail also reported that the last of the British troops will leave Afghanistan over the next few days.
This report stated the decision follows on the heels of America’s decision to bring forward their final withdrawal date.
When asked to confirm that all US troops will withdraw, except for those that will stay behind to protect the American Embassy in Kabul, will be gone by July 4, Psaki said “the operational components of that, I’d certainly point you to the Department of Defense. But nothing has changed on our timeline or objective”.
Psaki, asked in the press briefing whether all Afghan translators and other staff who had worked alongside troops would be out of Afghanistan by the time the last of the troops leave, said Washington’s “focus is on now is expediting that processing. As you know, we announced just last Friday that we were taking steps to evaluate options for moving individuals to another location so that they could complete their processing — individuals who were already in the pipeline.”
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