MONITORING (SW) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify at least twice in Congress next week as lawmakers examine the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, after Senate and House of Representatives committees promised aggressive investigations.
Blinken will address the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a public hearing on Monday, Sept. 13., at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) in a public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 14, the committees said.
Other congressional committees are likely to hold their own hearings in the weeks to come about the chaotic end last month to the longest U.S. longest war, reported Reuters.
Opposition Republicans have blamed Democratic President Joe Biden for events surrounding the collapse of Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government and the takeover by the militant Islamist Taliban.
Biden’s Democrats, who narrowly control both houses of Congress, said they want to examine all of the two decades of conflict, under presidents from both parties.
Separately, a group of 15 Democratic members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for more information on how any remaining Americans, permanent U.S. residents and other vulnerable people would be evacuated from Afghanistan.
A US-led aggression defeated the Taliban in 2001 after an attack on September 11 that was masterminded by Afghan-based al-Qaeda leaders.
“My fear is that Republicans will turn this into a circus and try to blame Joe Biden for his 20-year mistake in Afghanistan,” said Senator Chris Murphy, a Democratic member of the Foreign Affairs Commission. I told reporters. Conference call.
Murphy, who agreed with the decision to withdraw rather than “stay forever,” said he did not want the hearings to focus solely on evacuation.
“The real problem is, after we leave, after knowing that there is no way to build Afghan troops, the Afghan government that can hold the country against the Taliban, why we in Afghanistan 10 more Did you stay for a year? “Murphy said.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat on another committee, criticized Biden for staying longer, noting that former Republican President Donald Trump pushed the escape from Afghanistan even faster. bottom.
“It’s a little hard to hear that Republican colleagues who strongly supported Trump’s decision are attacking President Biden for a decision he had previously supported,” he said in the same call.
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