US DIPLOMATIC PRESENCE “UNLIKELY”
The USA has evacuated practically 5,500 Americans from Afghanistan since Aug 14, together with 50 within the final day, and was nonetheless working to get about 250 Americans nonetheless within the nation onto evacuation flights, a State Division spokesman mentioned.
The Taliban had pledged to permit Afghans to depart Afghanistan after Tuesday’s deadline for the withdrawal of North Atlantic Treaty Group (NATO) troops, after which the US was unlikely to have any diplomats within the nation to assist at-risk Afghans who miss out on the evacuation flights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press programme.
“By way of having an on-the-ground diplomatic presence on September 1st, that is not prone to occur,” Blinken mentioned.
Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, mentioned that the administration had did not plan for a Taliban takeover, and criticised Blinken for giving a very constructive view of the evacuation effort.
“Their plan has mainly been blissful speak. Individuals have died and individuals are going to die as a result of President Biden determined to depend on blissful speak as an alternative of actuality,” Sasse advised ABC’s This Week.
Different members of Congress have vowed to probe what went awry in Afghanistan.
Senate International Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat, mentioned earlier this month that his panel will maintain a listening to on US coverage in the direction of Afghanistan “together with the Trump administration’s flawed negotiations with (the) Taliban, and the Biden administration’s flawed execution of the US withdrawal”.
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