Blinken Says American Diplomats Have Left Kabul

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Blinken Says American Diplomats Have Left Kabul

WASHINGTON — American diplomats have left Afghanistan, and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul will stay closed, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated


WASHINGTON — American diplomats have left Afghanistan, and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul will stay closed, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated on Monday, after the navy introduced that it had accomplished its withdrawal from the nation.

The disintegration of U.S. diplomacy was a surprising turnabout from plans to remain and assist Afghanistan transition away from 20 years of warfare and work towards peace, nonetheless tenuous, with a authorities that may share energy with the Taliban. Earlier this month, Mr. Blinken had pledged that the US would stay “deeply engaged” in Afghanistan lengthy after the navy left.

However that mission was largely dashed on Aug. 15, when the Taliban superior into the capital, Kabul, forcing President Ashraf Ghani to flee the nation and American diplomats to evacuate to a compound secured by the U.S. navy on the worldwide airport.

Mr. Blinken’s feedback got here because the final U.S. navy flights departed Afghanistan, carrying a small core of diplomats who had tried to course of immigration visas for tens of 1000’s of Afghans and safe secure passage for about 6,000 Americans in a two-week evacuation mission from the Kabul airport.

American diplomats will stay engaged in Afghanistan, however from exterior its borders. Mr. Blinken stated the trouble would now be led out of Qatar.

Of paramount significance to the Biden administration are the folks — together with a small variety of U.S. residents — who had been left behind. Officers stated fewer than 200 had been nonetheless making an attempt to depart.

Till not too long ago, the embassy in Kabul was one of many largest American diplomatic missions on the earth. Simply weeks earlier than it closed, and the American flag exterior its headquarters was lowered, the embassy’s employees numbered about 4,000 staff, round 1,400 of whom had been U.S. diplomats, contractors and officers from different U.S. companies.

Lots of of American diplomats had served there after the embassy was reclaimed by Marines in December 2001 in the course of the U.S.-led invasion. It had been closed since 1989, when the Soviet navy withdrew from Afghanistan after a 10-year warfare.

Earlier than Kabul fell, President Biden had promised that the top of the warfare would convey the departure of American troops from Afghanistan, however not its diplomatic corps. Years of pissed off peace talks had been set to proceed between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities, an effort largely fostered by the US.

“At the same time as we withdraw our forces from Afghanistan, the US and our companions stay deeply engaged,” Mr. Blinken stated on the State Division on Aug. 2. “Our partnership with the folks of Afghanistan will endure lengthy after our service members have departed. We are going to maintain partaking intensely in diplomacy to advance negotiations between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban with the objective of a political answer, which we consider is the one path to lasting peace.”



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