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Coffee House Shots

Will Biden agree to Boris's Afghanistan request?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2021

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Prime Minister has requested Washington to extend the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Kabul. But will Joe Biden acquiesce, amidst warnings from the Taliban that there will be 'consequences' if the US stays longer? Isabel Hardman talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:24.8

Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Isabel Harbman

0:30.2

and I'm joined by Katie Balls and Fraser Nelson. Well, Boris Johnson is having a meeting of

0:35.9

G7 leaders on Tuesday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

0:40.8

And he will be asking President Biden to extend the deadline by which troops are out of Afghanistan, which is at the end of this month.

0:51.0

Fraser, what does this mean for the relationship between the US and the UK? It's quite

0:55.9

interesting that Britain's doing it this way. We know, the UK knows, that Biden is quite

1:01.6

set on as 31st of August to deadline. Britain is very frustrated by this because we can't hold

1:06.6

the airports by ourselves. We've already got about three and a half thousand people out, but there's a

1:11.8

lot more we need to get. Britain's problem is that we're calling people out to the airport to board

1:16.5

the flight, but only about a quarter of those are calling are actually coming through to the airport.

1:21.7

Now, this really surprised British officials. They're thinking, why should this be? They can only

1:25.8

conclude that some people think it's a bit too

1:28.0

dangerous to go outside in Kabul, that they don't, if they're Afghans wanting to leave the country,

1:32.9

they don't particularly fancy bumping into Taliban checkpoints having to say they're on their

1:36.8

airports on the way to the airport to get evacuated by the Brits. So Britain certainly wants more

1:41.9

time. And to make a request, which looks like it will probably be denied by Joe Biden, is something I can see politically. I think it's a way of trying to highlight a divide between Britain and America to say, look, we're not happy with the Biden timetable here. Normally, you would only make this request to America if you knew it was going to be

2:01.3

granted. And of course, meanwhile, you've got the Taliban saying to Biden, you better watch out

2:06.9

because we won't take it kindly if you do extend beyond the 31st of August.

2:12.2

We've got a clip of that, which you can listen to here.

2:14.8

President Biden announced this agreement until 31st of August.

2:21.7

They would withdraw all their military forces.

...

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