Biden sticks to Aug. 31 Afghanistan withdrawal deadline, despite

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is expected to keep the timeline he previously set for the full U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as the military accelerates the tempo of a colossal humanitarian airlift from the country, multiple senior administration officials tell NBC News.

White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, added that the president may opt to extend the mission beyond Aug. 31 for a number of reasons to include “if the Taliban stop cooperating” with U.S. evacuation operations.

Biden is slated to deliver remarks later Tuesday, which come on the heels of an emergency G-7 meeting where leaders of the world’s seven major industrialized democracies were likely to press the U.S. president to extend a self-imposed Aug. 31 departure date.

In a joint statement following the virtual meeting, the group expressed their concern about the devolving security situation in Afghanistan.

“The Afghan people deserve to live in dignity, peace and security, reflecting the last two decades of their political, economic and social achievements, in particular for women and girls. Afghanistan must never again become a safe haven for terrorism, nor a source of terrorist attacks on others,” the leaders wrote.

“Our immediate priority is to ensure the safe evacuation of our citizens and those Afghans who have partnered with us and assisted our efforts over the past twenty years, and to ensure continuing safe passage out of Afghanistan. We will continue to coordinate closely on this, and we expect all parties to continue to facilitate this,” the statement added.

The Taliban said Tuesday that the group will not allow Afghan nationals to leave the country nor will they accept an extension beyond the end of the month.

“We are not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday.

“They [the Americans] have the opportunity, they have all the resources, they can take all the people that belong to them but we are not going to allow Afghans to leave and we will not extend the deadline,” he said. Evacuations carried out by foreign forces after Aug. 31 would be a “violation” of a Biden administration promise to end the U.S. military’s mission in the country, Mujahid said.

Biden has previously said he may consider extending the departure date past Aug. 31 but has yet to do so.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that there has been no change to the timeline of the mission.

“We remain committed to getting any and all Americans that…