Blinken grilled in congress on US withdrawal from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: Congressional Republicans on Wednesday grilled secretary of state Antony Blinken over the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Blinken appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, capping a long period of animosity between his agency and the committee’s Republican leadership, which has accused the top US diplomat of ignoring its numerous subpoenas.

Republicans, led by president-elect Donald Trump, have lambasted the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, which saw 13 American soldiers killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport in the final hours of the retreat.

The hearing, which was briefly interrupted by protesters against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, comes as Blinken heads to Jordan later Wednesday to discuss the unrest in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

“Mr Secretary, to preserve optics, you sacrificed the safety and security of our service members, diplomats, citizens and allies,” said Committee chairman Republican Michael McCaul. “You treated terrorists as diplomatic partners and created an environment ripe for chaos.”

He added: “This catastrophic event was the beginning of a failed foreign policy that lit the world on fire.”

Blinken stressed that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan had been made during Trump’s previous administration in an agreement with the Taliban.

“To the extent president (Joe) Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it,” Blinken said.

Addressing US soldiers’ relatives present in the hall, Blinken said: “I deeply regret that we did not do more, and could not do more to protect them.”

Democratic representative Kathy Manning meanwhile suggested that “the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and what happens next, including the potential resurgence of ISIS or other terrorist groups… would be a much better use of our time to talk about that topic today.”

The US withdrawal saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Afghan forces, forcing the last American troops to mount an evacuation from Kabul’s airport that got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of days.

Biden has long defended the decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces.

That paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after their first government was toppled by American troops.

During the hearing McCaul also announced that White House National security advisor Jake Sullivan will also testify in front of the body on Dec 17 on the matter, which has been a key part of Trump’s election campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.

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