France, UK to propose 'safe zone' in Kabul

Paris: President Emmanuel Macron says that France and Britain plan to propose at the U.N. on Monday the creation of a safe zone in Kabul that would allowed for continued humanitarian operations.

The French leader, currently in Iraq, said Sunday that Paris and London would propose at a Security Council meeting on the crisis in Afghanistan a resolution aimed at defining a safe zone in Kabul under U.N. control.

This would keep pressure on the Taliban and hold the international community accountable, he said in an exclusive interview with the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche published Sunday.

It was unclear if the protection zone France and Britain envisage would be linked to eventual targeted evacuations that Macron spoke of on Saturday.

He said at a news conference in Baghdad that France is talking with the Taliban and Qatar about continuing evacuations after the Americans pull out on Tuesday to bring out Afghans on France's list of potential evacuees that never made it out of the country.

One possibility would be to evacuate via Kabul's civilian airport or a neighbouring country, he told

the newspaper.