Blinken defends withdrawal from Afghanistan in a controversial House hearing

Washington — Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday defended President Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan while appearing before the Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee, which has long sought to question him about the deadly evacuation.

“I firmly believe that the president’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was the right decision,” he told lawmakers.

Blinken refused to take responsibility for the decisions taken before the exit, explaining that the actions taken by the first Trump administration left the Biden administration in a weak position and intelligence assessments expected Kabul to remain in the hands of the Afghan government.

Blinken’s testimony came nearly three months after the committee convened Vote The party followed suit to recommend that the country’s top diplomat be held in contempt of Congress amid a standoff over his appearance before the committee to discuss its investigation into… 2021 withdrawal.

The committee and the State Department have been at loggerheads for months, prompting Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the Republican chairman, to issue multiple subpoenas for Blinken to testify in September. McCaul said Blinken’s appearance is important because the committee is considering “potential legislation aimed at helping prevent disastrous withdrawal mistakes.”

Hearing in Afghanistan

“It is tragic that, more than three years after this administration’s disastrous withdrawal, you are finally here to take responsibility,” McCaul said Wednesday, accusing Blinken in the run-up to the evacuation of denying “imminent and serious threats to American interests and American citizens.” And our Afghan partners For a decade, the Taliban have captured one province after another on their march to Kabul.

Release Republicans on committee Lengthy report In September, she detailed their years-long investigation into the chaotic exit from Afghanistan and accused the Biden administration of misleading the public about the end of the 20-year war.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the committee’s top Democrat, on Wednesday called the report “partisan and misleading” and said Republicans had “distorted the facts” about whether a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. soldiers could have been prevented.

Blinken, whose opening statement was repeatedly disrupted by protesters, acknowledged the service members who died and their families, saying he deeply regretted that the United States “did not and cannot do more to protect them.”

“To the extent that President Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it,” Blinken said. “In the three years since the end of our country’s longest war. All of us, myself included, have grappled with what we could have done differently during that period and over the next two decades.”

Blinken also acknowledged that the Taliban were not committed to the deal the Trump administration struck with the group to withdraw US troops from the country by May 2021. The agreement, known as the Doha Agreement, set out a series of conditions for the Taliban in order for US forces to fully leave Afghanistan.

He added, “The Taliban violated the Doha Agreement in several ways.” “It was a violation when the previous administration repeatedly pulled out troops. It was a violation during the time we were in office before the evacuation.”

According to Blinken, the Biden administration tried in vain to convince the Taliban to adhere to the conditions and negotiate with the Afghan government.

“They didn’t do that,” he said. “But because we had the deadline, and because we had the possibility that the Taliban would resume attacks on American forces, which would have required us to return tens of thousands of Americans to Afghanistan, we pursued their withdrawal.”

He said that the Doha agreement “created a massive crisis of confidence” in the Afghan government. The Afghan government was excluded from the Trump administration’s negotiations with the Taliban that led to the agreement.

Blinken said he was on the phone with then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani the night before he fled the country as the Taliban approached.

“He told me he wanted to continue working to reach an agreement with the Taliban, but if he couldn’t, he would stay and fight to the death,” Blinken said. “And he left the next day.”

Blinken said that although the United States tried to contact every American citizen in Afghanistan, hundreds who wanted to leave the country were unable to get out before the withdrawal. He added that so far, “every American who identified himself and said he wanted to leave has been given the opportunity.” He added that some returned after the withdrawal and were arrested.

“We are working every day to get them out and bring them back,” he added.

Committee report

During the investigation, the committee conducted 18 written interviews with Biden administration officials and received more than 20,000 pages of documents from the State Department, some of which were obtained through subpoenas. Blinken was not among those who testified on the report, but the State Department indicated amid the standoff with the committee that he had testified before Congress about Afghanistan more than 14 times.

The report accused President Biden and his administration of ignoring repeated warnings from military officials, national security advisers and US allies about the risks of withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan, saying that Mr Biden “prioritized politics and his personal legacy over US national security interests.” ”

Blinken was among those criticized in the report, which he said “remained largely absent throughout the State Department’s planning for the withdrawal” and the evacuation process.

“Indeed, witnesses interviewed, and documents provided by federal agencies after the investigation, confirm that Secretary Blinken has likely abdicated responsibility to his subordinates in Afghanistan,” the report said.

Blinken called for the US Embassy in Kabul to remain open regardless of the military withdrawal, according to the report, which said the desire to maintain a diplomatic presence contributed to the State Department’s “lack of urgency and delay in planning for the worst.” Case scenarios.”

The report also noted that diplomatic officials on the ground expressed concerns about the commitment to keep the embassy open despite the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, culminating in an opposition cable in July 2021 warning that Kabul would fall after the planned withdrawal. The report stated that two weeks before US forces left Afghanistan, State Department leaders agreed to close the embassy.

Republicans have threatened to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress in 2023 as they seek to review the secret opposition cable. Finally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lawmakers were allowed to view a partially redacted version.

“I personally read this, sir,” McCaul said during questioning of Blinken on Wednesday. “Why did you ignore the cries for help? Why did you leave the embassy open?”

McCaul also said it appeared Blinken delegated responsibility and pressured him on who made the decisions.

“For legislation to move forward, I need to know who is responsible,” McCaul said, calling on Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan to testify before the committee.

About 20 minutes later, McCall announced that Sullivan had agreed to testify Tuesday.

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee accused Republicans of politicizing the withdrawal, and said the majority made a “special effort to avoid facts about former President Donald Trump.”

last year, White House release Its 12-page summary of a secret Afghanistan exit review that largely blamed the Trump administration for the Doha agreement. last a report The State Department partially declassified and released it last year, criticizing the Trump and Biden administrations for “inadequate” planning surrounding the withdrawal.