Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Qatar on Monday to express his gratitude for his help with the chaotic exit of the United States from Afghanistan as the small Persian Gulf country emerges as the center of continued efforts to evacuate the U.S. citizens and Afghan allies who were left behind under the Taliban government.
Staff at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan moved last week to Doha, Qatar, following the last U.S. flights departing from Kabul.
Blinken exchanged bumps with dignitaries as he landed his government plane in Qatar, before having dinner with Sheikh Tamir bin Hamad al Thani.
The State Department said Monday that it has helped four Americans escape Afghanistan by land since last week, but the department was also accused of obstructing the efforts of U.S. citizens who wanted to leave. Afghanistan by plane.
Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday that the Taliban are holding six planes carrying U.S. and Afghan refugees as “hostages” at an airport in northern Afghanistan, but flight organizers said Monday that the planes, which are expected to have 19 Americans, are actually being detained by the State Department, which has not granted approval to land in Qatar due to concerns about passenger lists.
Blinken is rejected by Republicans in Congress for his role in the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops, U.S. civilians and Afghans working for the U.S. military. The mission left behind hundreds of U.S. citizens and thousands of Afghans working for the U.S. government, despite President Biden’s previous insistence that U.S. troops remain until all Americans who wanted to leave were helped to do so.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is close to Blinken. He also left the United States on Sunday for his part in what the Biden administration called a thank-you tour. Austin is expected to visit Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Qatar hosts the large U.S.-controlled Al Udeid air base, which has been used as a starting point for housing for many of the tens of thousands of people evacuated from Afghanistan in the last days of the intervention. American.
Qatar has also welcomed Taliban representatives for years as part of failed peace talks.
The small but rich kingdom has clashed with U.S. allied neighbors, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which imposed a nearly four-year blockade from 2017 that forced Qatar to rely on Iran’s airspace for flights.
The Qatari government has maintained friendly relations with the Muslim Brotherhood, which its neighboring monarchies see as a threat, and has funded tougher Islamists in civil wars in Libya and Syria.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the siege of Qatar in June 2017 and issued 17 demands, including the closure of the Al Jazeera news network and the deterioration of relations with Turkey and Iran. The fight ended in January under the mediation of then-President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Back in DC, Blinken will stop at Germany’s Ramstein Air Base, which is helping prosecute Afghan evacuees.
Austin’s trip to Saudi Arabia will be heavily watched as the Biden administration has cooled relations with the Saudis. Biden withdrew U.S. support for Saudi intervention in the Yemeni civil war and authorized sanctions against Saudis suspected of involvement in the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden did not sanction Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to which US intelligence agencies concluded he ordered the mission.