European fury at Biden: Humiliated Boris Johnson pleads with Taliban to continue to let people out of Afghanistan AFTER August 31 and announces a 'roadmap' for dealing with new Islamist government - amid anger from France and Germany

Boris Johnson today pleaded with the Taliban to allow people to leave Afghanistan after the US has completed its withdrawal on August 31.  

Mr Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel used a G7 summit to urge Joe Biden to extend the deadline to provide more time for airlifts from Kabul airport to take place. 

But the entreaties appear to have fallen on deaf ears with the Mr Biden expected to stick to his exit date for US forces. 

A humiliated Mr Johnson said after the summit that the UK will continue to conduct airlifts from the country 'right up until the last moment' as he called on the Taliban to guarantee 'safe passage' for anyone who wants to leave after August 31. 

Boris Johnson today pleaded with the Taliban to allow people to leave Afghanistan after the US has completed its withdrawal on August 31

Mr Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel used a G7 summit to urge Joe Biden to extend the deadline to provide more time for airlifts from Kabul airport to take place

The Taliban today repeated blood-curdling warnings of consequences if there was an attempt to extend the deadline as the group said no-one would be permitted to leave. 

'All people should be removed prior to that date,' a spokesman told a press conference in the capital. 'After that we do not allow them. We will take a different stance.'

According to Reuters, the Pentagon told Mr Biden the risks to American forces are too high if they defy the Taliban. 

White House sources said Mr Biden had agreed with the Pentagon that there would be no change to the timeline of the mission.   

It means troops will have to abandon the humanitarian operation and start focusing on their own exit plan as soon as tomorrow. 

Mr Johnson said the UK's own emergency airlifts would continue for as long as possible. 

He said: 'This is an extraordinary airlift, we have evacuated 9,000, the UK alone has taken 9,000 people out of Kabul, I think 57 flights.

'A huge, huge effort by our military and we will go on right up until the last moment that we can.

'But you have heard what the President of the United States has had to say, you have heard what the Taliban have said.'

The PM said the situation at Kabul airport is 'not getting any better' with ongoing 'public order issues'. 

He said the G7 had agreed a 'number one condition' that the Taliban must stick to in the coming weeks. 

'What we have done today at the G7 is we have got together the leading Western powers and agreed not just a joint approach to dealing with the evacuation but also a roadmap for the way in which we are going to engage with the Taliban, this probably will be a Taliban government in Kabul,' he said. Japan, an Eastern power, is also part of the G7 and was represented at the virtual meeting.

Joe Biden addresses a virtual meeting of G7 leaders this afternoon. He is said to have spoken for seven minutes 

'And the number one condition we are setting as G7 is that they have got to guarantee right the way through August 31 and beyond safe passage for those who want to come out.'

Mr Johnson also insisted the G7 nations have 'huge leverage' over the Taliban because of the threat of sanctions as he said funding for the country would only be made available in the future if it meets the West's expectations.   

He said: 'The G7 has huge leverage and today the G7 agreed, we brought them together, and they agreed a roadmap for future engagement with the Taliban.

'If those huge funds are going to be unfrozen eventually for use by the government and people of Afghanistan then what we are saying is Afghanistan can't lurch back into becoming a breeding ground of terror, Afghanistan can't become a narco state.'

Tuesday's virtual meeting of the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US served not only as a bookend to the West's 20-year involvement in Afghanistan that began as a response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks but also a resigned acknowledgment from European powers that the U.S. calls the shots.

'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,' the leaders said in a joint statement that did not address precisely how they would guarantee continuing safe passage without any military presence.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the US 'has the leadership' regarding Afghanistan File

Going forward, the leaders said they would 'judge the Afghan parties by their actions, not words,' echoing previous warnings to the Taliban not to revert to the strict Islamic form of government that they ran when they last held power from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion that ousted them in 2001.

'In particular, we reaffirm that the Taliban will be held accountable for their actions on preventing terrorism, on human rights in particular those of women, girls and minorities and on pursuing an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan,' the leaders said. 

'The legitimacy of any future government depends on the approach it now takes to uphold its international obligations and commitments to ensure a stable Afghanistan.'

Yet, individual leaders offered less sanguine descriptions of the meeting as well as the state of affairs in Afghanistan, which have dramatically changed since the bloc last met in England in June. 

At the time of that summit, Afghanistan had been almost an afterthought with the leaders more concentrated on the coronavirus pandemic, China and Russia. Although Biden had announced his plan for complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Cornwall meeting did not anticipate Taliban's rapid takeover.

'I want to stress again that of course the United States of America has the leadership here,' German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin after the meeting.

 'Without the United States of America, for example, we - the others - cannot continue the evacuation mission.'

A senior French official, speaking anonymously in accordance with the French presidency's customary practices, said President Macron had pushed for extending the Aug. 31 deadline but would 'adapt' to the American sovereign decision. 'That's in the hands of the Americans,' he said.

On Monday, CIA chief William Burns met with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul in talks in which the Taliban underscored they would not accept a U.S. military presence at the airport beyond Aug. 31.

And, just minutes after the G7 leaders finished their meeting on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed that Biden planned to stick to that date. Biden addressed the leaders for several minutes near the start of the meeting that lasted less than an hour, according to the White House.

Ahead of the meeting, British defence secretary Ben Wallace said he was doubtful that Biden would agree to extend the deadline. And Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday said his group would accept 'no extensions' to the deadline.