US official: American, Taliban officials to talk on evacuees

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official says Americans will meet with senior Taliban officials for talks to ease evacuations of foreign nationals and some Afghans from Afghanistan. The focus of talks Saturday and Sunday in Doha, Qatar, will be holding Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders to commitments that they would allow Americans and other foreign nationals to leave the country. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak by name about the meetings. The Biden administration has fielded questions and complaints about the slow pace of U.S.-sanctioned evacuations from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since the last U.S. forces and diplomats left there at the end of August.