President Joe Biden is expected to talk again about Afghanistan

Facing a storm of criticism, President Joe Biden plans to speak Friday about the chaotic evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan, while the United States faces obstacles ranging from the checkpoints of armed Taliban to the problems of travel documents.

While President Beden earlier blamed Afghans for the United States' failure to evacuate more allies before the surprise takeover of power by the Taliban this month, US officials told the Associated Press that American diplomats had officially demanded weeks earlier that the Biden administration step up evacuation efforts.

Tens of thousands of people remain to be evacuated before the August 31st deadline of the United States to withdraw its troops from the country, although the pace grew rapidly. A defence official said about 5,700 people, including about 250 Americans, were evacuated from Kabul with 16 C-17 transport planes. During the previous two days, about 2,000 people a day were transported by plane.

President Biden will meet with his national security team for evacuations and will speak from the White House on Friday afternoon. In addition to criticism from some lawmakers who say that the United States failed to plan to take power from Taliban, even American diplomats have expressed their concern.

In July, more than 20 diplomats at the American Embassy in Kabul expressed their concerns that the evacuation of Afghans working for Americans was not taking place on time.

In a cablegram sent through the State Department, diplomats said the situation on the ground was terrible, that the Taliban are likely to take over the capital within months of withdrawing August 31st and urged the Biden administration to immediately launch a joint effort to evacuate. This is according to officials familiar with the document, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Biden has said the chaos that emerged as part of the withdrawal was inevitable as the almost 20-year war was ending. He said he was following US-backed President Ashraf Ghan's advice not to evacuate translators and other Afghans in danger earlier. Ghan left the country last weekend as the Taliban invaded the capital.

Beden also said that many Afghan allies at risk had not wanted to leave the country. But refugee groups point to the demands of thousands of Afghans long ago for visas that would allow them to take refuge in the United States. /voa