BRITAIN is in a 36-hour dash to save thousands of desperate Brits and Afghans from Kabul after Joe Biden refused to extend the mercy mission.
The embattled US President snubbed pleas by Boris Johnson and other G7 leaders to keep troops on the ground past August 31 – despite warnings it will cost lives.
UK’s evacuation from the war-torn city is set to end within “24 to 36 hours”, it emerged tonight.
The US military is believed to need up two to three days to shut down its mission at Kabul airport – leaving a small window for RAF flights.
Just hours earlier the Taliban had darkly warned they will bar Afghans from fleeing the country, saying: “The road to Kabul is closed.”
British defence chiefs are believed to be planning to end civilian rescue flights tomorrow or Friday so there is enough time to get UK forces out before America cuts and runs.
Tonight, the PM insisted Britain will keep airlifting Afghans out “until the last moment that we can”.
And he revealed the West is demanding “safe passage” for fleeing Afghans as its price for recognising the Taliban.
He said: “The number one condition that we are insisting upon is safe passage beyond the 31st, beyond this initial phase, for those who want to leave Afghanistan.”
America froze 9.5 billion dollars of Afghan assets (around £7billion) after Taliban militants seized the capital.
The PM set out the West’s list of demands for handing the cash back.
He said: “If those huge funds are going to be unfrozen eventually for use by the government and people of Afghanistan, then Afghanistan can’t lurch back into becoming a breeding ground of terror, Afghanistan can’t become a narco state, girls have to be educated up to the age of 18.”
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Around 5,000 Brits and Afghans who have been promised refuge in the UK are believed to be still stuck in the country at the mercy of extremists.
The MoD have been airlifting around 2,000 people a day to safety, but hopes are fading fast that anyone who is not already at or near Kabul airport will be able to get out on military flights.
Mr Johnson added: “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.
“I think you have got to understand the context in which we’re doing this. We’re confident we can get thousands more out.
“But the situation at the airport is not getting any better, there are public order issues, it’s harrowing scenes for those who are trying to get out, and it’s tough for our military as well.”
Government sources said it is expected to take some time for the British military to safely pack up and leave Kabul.
One insider said of the evacuation effort: “The further we move forward, the more the window closes.”
Meanwhile, the Taliban moved to place Afghans into lockdown to stop them escaping.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference yesterday: “The road to Kabul airport is closed for locals and open to foreigners.
“We fully assure the locals and tell them to return to their homes. We are not in favour of allowing Afghans to leave”.
Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee, raged: “We have seen a litany of strategic and operational mistakes by the US.
“This failure will embolden enemy states and terror groups across the world and shows how feeble the West has become.”
Britain is working to keep Kabul airport open after military troops pull out.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told MPs he hopes commercial flights could still operate out of the airstrip after August 31 so fleeing Afghans can get out.
He also revealed that the West is hoping to pressure the Taliban into changing its murderous ways by bringing outsiders into its government.
He told MPs on a call yesterday: “We’ll use all levers we can to try and secure a transitional government whereby the Taliban takes in a broader range of Afghan political figures and leaders.
“And then also try to make sure they can live up to better standards of human rights and wider government standards than what we saw with – if I can put it that way – Taliban 1.0.”
In a letter on Afghanistan sent out to all MPs yesterday, the government said: “It is the sad reality that many of those who are screened and declared eligible for evacuation may not make it to the airport before our flights end.
“The challenges they face getting to the airport, coupled with the crowds at the gates, mean that many will simply not get to us in time.
“If the US timetable to withdraw by 31st August does not change then our forces will have to leave before then.”
The letter was signed by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Meanwhile, it emerged that CIA director William Burns secretly met the Taliban leadership for talks in Kabul on Monday.
President Biden dispatched his top spy to meet Abdul Ghani Baradar in the highest-level face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital.
The CIA refused to comment on the Taliban meeting, but the discussions are likely to have centred on the looming August 31 deadline for allied troops to leave Afghanistan.
