US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:30 PM PT – Sunday, April 18, 2021
Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan would not compromise the security of that country.
“We will have the means to see if there is a resurgence, a reemergence of a terrorist threat from Afghanistan,” said Blinken. “We’ll be able to see that in real-time with time to take action. And we’re going to be repositioning our forces and our assets to make sure that we guard against the potential re-emergence.”
Blinken suggested U.S. forces would be able to return to Afghanistan if terror group the Taliban moves to restore control over that nation’s politics. He also claimed the U.S. has achieved its objectives in that country, although the Taliban still controls nearly 20 percent of the Afghan territory.
EXCLUSIVE: Sec. of State Antony Blinken defends Pres. Biden’s pledge to withdraw troops from Afghanistan: “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago, and we went because we were attacked on 9/11… we achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve.” https://t.co/SU8sA3lmXX pic.twitter.com/W9zp8moZQh
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 18, 2021
“And we went to take on those who attacked us on 9/11 and to make sure that Afghanistan would not again become a haven for terrorism directed at the United States or any of our allies and partners,” Blinken noted. “And we’ve achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve. Al-Quaeda has been significantly degraded. Its capacity to conduct an attack against the United States, now, from Afghanistan, is not there. And of course, Osama Bin Laden was brought to justice ten years ago.”
In early April, Biden postponed the withdrawal of U.S. troops, which had been slated for May 1 by President Trump, and is now expected by mid-September.
