At a time when the latest assessments of the American intelligence community indicate warnings of the progress of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan at an accelerating pace, and the deterioration of the security situation in the country, new concerns have surfaced about the American missions and their attachments there.
US officials have revealed a set of obstacles that a small cadre of employees at the fortified US embassy in Kabul must overcome, especially with the outbreak of the Coronavirus and the American withdrawal from the country .
Hugo Lorenz, who served as the top US diplomat in Afghanistan under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, explained that in the absence of a fortified military component in Kabul, the mission of the US Embassy becomes more complex, dangerous and difficult.
Increased signs of fear
He stressed that while some governments, including France and China, have already evacuated their citizens from Afghanistan, the peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are showing few signs of progress, which increases the signs of fear on the diplomatic missions there.
A former senior official familiar with the mission in Afghanistan, who declined to be named, also considered that security has become non-existent and that tribal and ethnic divisions are making matters more difficult and making the task more complicated, in a report published by the American newspaper Washington Post .
The report also quoted that diplomats are working today, along with aid workers, outside the huge embassy complex in Kabul, which is located on the outskirts of a fortified diplomatic and government area, noting that the US embassy itself is a city in itself, as it includes offices, apartments, restaurants, and exercise facilities, and there were about 1,400 Americans as part of it. Out of a total of about 4,000.
It is worth noting that US intelligence indicated Saturday that its assessments paint an increasingly bleak picture of the Taliban’s accelerating progress through Afghanistan.
Agency reports warned that the extremist movement may soon control a large part of the country in the wake of the withdrawal of US forces.
The agency pointed out that several sources familiar with the latest assessments considered that the capital, Kabul, would be a “last stop” for the movement, which is likely to target large population centers before advancing towards the capital.
