Pakistan to bear special responsibility for Afghanistan’s future, says NATO chief

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday Pakistan bore special responsibility for how the situation in Afghanistan would unfold in the coming days.

He told reporters at a briefing after an emergency NATO foreign ministers' meeting, "When it comes to Pakistan, I think that Pakistan has a special responsibility, partly because Pakistan is a neighbour of Afghanistan, and partly because of Pakistan's close relationship to Taliban [a terrorist organization, banned in Russia].”

Stoltenberg added, "So, I think Pakistan has a special responsibility to make sure that Afghanistan lives up to its international commitments and also that Afghanistan not once again becomes a safe haven for international terrorists."

NATO to speed evacuations from Afghanistan

More than 18,000 people have been flown out of Kabul since the Taliban took over Afghanistan’s capital, a NATO official said on Friday. He pledged to redouble evacuation efforts as criticism of the West’s handling of the crisis intensified.

Thousands of people, desperate to flee the country, were still thronging the airport, said the official who declined to be identified, even though the Taliban have urged people without legal travel documents to go home.

Criticism of NATO and other Western powers has risen as images of the chaos and desperate fear of Taliban rule were shared around the world.