Secretary of State Antony Blinken will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, September 14 to testify about the withdrawal of the Afghan administration.
It is the first scheduled public hearing with government officials since late last month, when the Biden administration was caught up in the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and military and the Taliban advance into Kabul.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing is scheduled to “examine the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.” Blinken is the only witness currently in the hearing and spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menéndez
Robert (Bob) Menendez: Nocturnal Health Care: FDA Vaccine Scientists March in the Middle of a Reinforcement Drama The drug price bill in the Senate may not apply to those with work-based insurance. (DN.J.) did not immediately respond to a question about possible testimony from other administration officials.
The hearing is likely to mark the start of what is expected to be a long public grid for administration officials by Congress amid a series of unanswered questions about Biden’s exit plans in the l ‘Afghanistan, including the way the White House was trapped by the rapid collapse of the United States. with government support and how to get Americans and Afghan allies to stay out of the country.
Sunday’s announcement of the hearing with Blinken comes amid reports that at least four planes from an airport in northern Afghanistan have been unable to leave the country for days. The State Department said Sunday it did not have the “reliable means” to confirm whether the Taliban were preventing planes with U.S. citizens and Afghan allies from leaving the country.
Menendez, in a statement last month, was critical of the failed exit and said they were “a clear execution of the policy and intelligence failures associated with our withdrawal and its consequences.”
“The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will continue to fulfill its oversight role with a hearing on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, including the Trump administration’s flawed negotiations with the Taliban and the poor execution of the withdrawal. of the United States by the Biden administration, “he said at the time.
“The Committee will seek a full explanation for these shortcomings, as well as assess why the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces collapsed so quickly. Congress was repeatedly told that the Afghan Defense and Security Forces were in the height of the task … It is clear that the Afghan people have not been told the truth about the capacity of the ANDSF and that they deserve answers, “he added.
Senate Republicans on the Foreign Affairs Committee also pushed Menendez in a letter late last month to set up a public hearing with Blinken.
“We need to receive news directly from Secretary Blinken, to understand why the State Department was so ill-prepared for the contingencies that were presented to us and what it will take for the State Department to get back on track,” they wrote at the time. .
In addition to Menendez, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Jack Reed
Jack Reed: Night Defense: The top general acknowledges the loss of intelligence from the Afghan collapse. Congress is about to call Biden officials to the disorderly exit from Afghanistan. (DR.I.) and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner
The Mark Robert WarnerHouse committee votes to temporarily postpone the relocation of Space Command. The industry is putting pressure on Congress to extend the notification deadline after cybersecurity incidents. The PRO Law threatens the right to work of virgins MORE (D-Va.) They have pledged to ask questions about the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.
Blinken has been a rotation of administration officials who have reported lawmakers in private since mid-August, though none have yet publicly stated that.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Greg Meeks (DN.Y.), has also asked him to testify, although no hearing has yet been announced. Meeks also requests this Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
Lloyd AustinBlinken and Austin will visit the Gulf and its European allies to discuss Afghanistan’s failed war National defense and security overnight: out of Afghanistan, but trapped in limbo National defense and security: Afghanistan’s mental scars MONTH testify before their committee.