Biden admin suspends US evacuation flights after Taliban demand seats on planes out of Afghanistan

The Biden administration claimed that Qatar wasn't happy with the Taliban trying to take seats on Afghanistan flights out of the country. But a new report suggests that Qatar and the Taliban are fine with the arrangement, and it's American officials who are unhappy.

According to The Times, the Taliban took seats on evacuation planes to smuggle out fighters and supporters abroad to bolster the group's fundraising efforts. This claim is what fuels speculation about why US flights out of Afghanistan have stopped altogether earlier on in December.

"Sources familiar with the evacuation process said that the Taliban had previously submitted a list of selected names to Qatar's foreign ministry, which then co-ordinated with American officials, and only those on the US's final evacuees list were allowed to board flights leaving Kabul," the outlet claims.

While not being able to establish specific cases, the Taliban's explicit demand for seats on evacuation flights in this manner raised suspicions.

This comes as the country's economy is barely hanging on.

The decision by a UN Security Council to allow humanitarian aid into Afghanistan in order to avoid a famine crisis paints a grim picture of the situation.

The Times describes how the arrangement between Kabul and Doha had previously maintained "at least one or two evacuation flights a week." Qatar also hosted talks between the Taliban and the United States earlier this year.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who confirmed the suspension of evacuation flights late last week, was directly involved in that effort, and he's also the one who is now pointing fingers elsewhere over the stoppage of evacuation flights. He said Qatar was the one who objected to the Taliban's seating requests.

"It is essential that Kabul airport remain operational to ensure safe passage, commerce and, above all, urgently needed humanitarian aid. The Qataris have been unfailing, generous and critical partners in this important work, and we support the quickest possible resolution to any disagreements," the department spokesperson remarked in an NBC News interview.

This comes alongside a new Taliban order issued on Sunday that limits long-distance travel for Afghan women by themselves.

They'll need a male relative to chaperone them in such cases. Specifically, the cut-off point is any trip beyond 45 miles, and women are required to wear face coverings if they want to be accepted by vehicle owners.

On Monday, Taliban leadership motioned to dissolve Afghanistan's election commission, as well as their peace and parliamentary affairs ministries. "Now we have reached peace so no need for those," a Taliban spokesperson told CNN.

Afghanistan returned to international attention this year after the Biden administration's foreign policy debacle at Kabul airport. Civilians attempting to flee the country clung onto the wheels of military aircraft to try and escape.

13 US military members died in an ISIS suicide bombing a short while later. In an effort at retribution, the Biden administration drone striked 10 civilians, including children, under the notion that one man was affiliated with the terror group.

As for the Biden administration's efforts at evacuation in general – previous reporting indicates the White House's priority was filling up as many seats as they could whatsoever. With that mindset, it led to families of US troops still being left behind for weeks on end, months after the initial Afghanistan drawdown.