During an interview with MSNBC aired on Saturday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated the Taliban is cooperating with the U.S. in its efforts to get American citizens out of the country, but he won’t take from that, “anything for the future. I would say that they’re cooperating with us on this narrow set of issues, and we’ll take it for what it is.”
Austin said the Taliban is “cooperating with us, in terms of our efforts to get our American citizens out of country. But I would not, from that, infer anything for the future. I would say that they’re cooperating with us on this narrow set of issues, and we’ll take it for what it is.”
Later, NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell stated, “The Taliban is cooperating in some measure, but not on Mazar-e-Sharif, and getting — there are still obstacles to getting those planes up.”
Austin responded, “We’re going to have — this won’t be easy. We’ll continue to work on this, and we won’t rest until we have as many people out as we can possibly get out.”
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