Blinken hearing live Republicans tell diplomat to resign as he hails airlift and Taliban anti-terror pledge

Watch live as Blinken testifies to House on Afghanistan withdrawal

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is being grilled by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, which saw tens of thousands of people evacuated from the country in short order as it fell to the Taliban at unexpected speed.

The president and his aides have blamed the now-collapsed Afghan government and army for giving in to the Taliban as it marched across the country, but critics on both sides of the aisle accuse the administration of “giving up” on the Afghan people and Americans working on the ground there, as well as Afghan translators and workers who helped the US in its two-decade mission. They now face violent reprisal from the Taliban, which is already committing human rights abuses and radically curtailing women’s freedoms in particular.

The US this weekend marked the two-decade anniversary of 9/11, the event that precipitated the Afghan invasion â€" and which Joe Biden set as his deadline for pulling all US troops out.

Read more:

Show latest update 1631557479Chairman starts off hearing by criticising Trump

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks opened the hearing by criticising former President Donald Trump.

“Trump’s deal forced the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners and offered international legitimacy to the Taliban,” he said.

But he also said about the Biden team: “Are there things the administration could have done differently? Absolutely yes.”

Gustaf Kilander13 September 2021 19:241631553028Republican Congressman and Trump ally tells Blinken to resign

Republican congressman from Indiana Jim Banks, a staunch Trump ally, tweeted on Monday that the only thing Secretary Blinken should tell the House Foreign Affairs Committee this afternoon is: “I resign.”

Other Republicans who have called for the resignation of Mr Blinken include Missouri Senator Josh Hawley and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Gustaf Kilander13 September 2021 18:101631550593Who is Antony Blinken?

As we prepare to watch the Secretary of State’s most intense public encounter since he took up the job, here’s The Independent’s profile of the veteran diplomat â€" whom Borzou Daragahi described as “a veteran of Washington’s old-school foreign policy elite” whose “conventional approach to diplomacy” may not go down well in today’s world.

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 17:291631548853Blinken on Taliban government: “it does not meet the test of inclusivity”

The Biden administration has been preparing for an era dealing with the Taliban not as an insurgent group, but as a de facto government â€" and in a press conference last week, Mr Blinken expressed misgivings about what that government looks like so far, and specifically who is in it.

Watch his remarks below.

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 17:001631547158Senate Democrats to try and keep hearing focused on wider Afghan war

According to Reuters, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee â€" where Mr Blinken will testify tomorrow â€" are keen to avoid an autopsy of the withdrawal led by Republicans who want to frame Joe Biden for something set in motion years ago.

“My fear is that Republicans are going to turn this into a circus and try to put the blame on Joe Biden for 20 years’ worth of mistakes in Afghanistan,” the outlet quotes Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy saying.

“The real question is why did we stay in Afghanistan for another 10 years after we knew that there was going to be no way we could build an Afghan military, an Afghan government that was capable of holding the country against the Taliban once we left.”

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 16:321631543979Report: Republicans “making this as much of a Benghazi as they possibly can"

Axios quotes a “Democratic source” lamenting that the Republican Party’s criticism of the Afghan withdrawal is anything but authentic, and is instead designed to hang it around the president and his party like an albatross.

Complaining that the GOP are “making this as much of a Benghazi as they possibly can”, the source told the outlet that the Democrats are treating the matter as “an examination into U.S. policy toward a country in a 20-year war”.

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 15:391631541183Who can leave Afghanistan now?

It was only a few days ago that the first commercial flight to leave Afghanistan since the Taliban’s takeover. The Qatar Airways flight bound for Doha was reportedly full of westerners, many of them American civilians. Its departure was assured after intense negotiations between the Taliban and Washington.

Read more here:

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 14:531631539803Ilhan Omar on drone attacks

One of the most prominent questioners Mr Blinken will face is Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a member of the so-called “squad” of young progressive representatives who have earned themselves a national platform.

Ms Omar, who was herself a child refugee from Somalia, has been an outspoken critic of the US’s Afghanistan policy in general. She recently hit out at the Biden administration over a drone attack at the end of August that killed 10 people, including seven children.

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 14:301631538258Afghan withdrawal shakes up Republican Party politics

The Trump years saw the Republican Party shift its thinking on military intervention away from aggressive action and towards something approaching isolationism. The 45th president was an opponent of expending American blood and treasure on what he thought of as other people’s wars; instead, he threatened to withhold funding from NATO and other allies in order to extract concessions and compliance while pulling US troops out of places where they had been serving for years or decades.

This has left the pro-Trump GOP mainstream somewhat confused about how to react to the Afghan withdrawal â€" and how to use it as an issue in the 2024 presidential campaign if Mr Trump doesn’t run.

Tom Rogan has this analysis.

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 14:041631536203Collateral damage?

The use of drones to attack ground targets in Afghanistan (and beyond) has been controversial for years, and a recent strike is proving just as contentious.

According to a disturbing New York Times report, the driver of a car struck by a drone near Kabul airport at the end of last month may not have had any connection to the Isis-K terror group, and that the vehicle may not have been carrying a bomb at all.

Read more here:

Andrew Naughtie13 September 2021 13:30

Share this post