MONITORING (SW) – In a meeting with the visiting Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, the US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has expressed hopes President Biden will delay the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
“President Biden’s decision to withdraw US forces leaves our Afghan partners alone to confront threats that his own top advisors acknowledge are grave and growing worse,” McConnel said in a statement.
“The Taliban, emboldened by our retreat, is rolling back years of progress, especially for the rights of Afghan women, on its way to taking Kabul,” he said, adding that “increasing indications that this collapse could come soon after US withdrawal is complete are as tragic as they are avoidable.”
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He said that in the Taliban’s wake, al-Qaeda is already preparing for an ambitious resurgence of its own, which the President’s own Defence Secretary warns could lead to direct threats to the US homeland in as little as two years. “Without a reversal of US policy, I suspect this threat will come much more quickly,” he said.
“President Ghani and the people of Afghanistan are entitled to wonder why the Biden Administration has chosen to abandon the fight and invite even greater terrorist threats,” McConnell said. “They are right to expect answers about how the United States will honour its commitments to brave Afghans who have helped US forces, and how we will assist in mitigating the security and humanitarian fallout of a Taliban takeover.”
According to the ANI, McConnell said that he hopes the Biden Administration will delay the withdrawal, address these concerns, and reconsider its misguided retreat. “As President Ghani and the Afghan people know, the threats we face from terrorism and tyranny have not been defeated,” he concluded.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has arrived in the United States ahead of a meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday.
The first face-to-face interaction between Biden and Afghan officials comes ahead of the withdrawal of the remaining U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by September 11 in line with Biden’s direction to close what he has described as the “forever war.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday Biden “looks forward to welcoming” the Afghan leaders and will reassure them of U.S. diplomatic, economic and humanitarian support for the turmoil-hit country as the drawdown continues.
“The visit by President Ghani and Dr. Abdullah will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues,” she said.
Psaki emphasized that Washington “continues to fully support the ongoing peace process and encourages all Afghan parties to participate meaningfully in negotiations to bring an end to the conflict.”
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