President Joe Biden announced in a statement on Saturday the deployment of an additional 5,000 troops to Afghanistan, “to make sure we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance.”

Biden is also announcing a series of actions aimed at deescalating the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, including directing the intel community “to ensure that we will maintain the capability and the vigilance to address future terrorist threats from Afghanistan,” tasking Secretary of State Tony Blinken with supporting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, conveying to Taliban representatives in Doha “that any action on their part on the ground in Afghanistan, that puts US personnel or our mission at risk there, will be met with a swift and strong US military response,” and tasking Ambassador Tracey Jacobson with efforts “to process, transport, and relocate Afghan special immigrant visa applicants and other Afghan allies.”