The US House Foreign Affairs Committee begins its first hearing to consider the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, hearing from the leaders of two groups that have organized flights for those who want to leave Afghanistan.
The March 8 hearing is scheduled to testify from two groups that arranged charter flights during the August 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan.
The hearing, the first in the Afghanistan committee since the Republican Party took control of Congress, included a report in which President Joe Biden criticized him for a “dirty strike.”
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction twice told lawmakers that he was having trouble getting information from both the State Department and USAID about the withdrawal process.
It is noteworthy that on February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed the Doha Agreement on establishing peace in Afghanistan, including an agreement on the withdrawal of all US and NATO forces from Afghanistan.
The Trump administration agreed to an initial reduction of its forces from 13,000 to 8,600 by July 2020, and then to their full withdrawal by May 1, 2021, if the Taliban live up to their commitments.
In April 2021, the Biden administration announced that it would continue to withdraw troops past the originally set deadline, with an expected end date of September 11, 2021. The Biden administration later announced that despite the withdrawal, it would leave 650 US troops behind to protect the US embassy. in Afghanistan and the defense of Kabul International Airport along with Turkish troops.
On July 8, Biden changed the U.S. withdrawal deadline to August 31.
Source: The Hill + agencies