US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed on Thursday that the United States will have a lasting partnership with Afghanistan even after it withdraws all forces from the country before this year’s 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The unconditional withdrawal — four months later than a deadline agreed with the Taliban last year — comes despite a deadlock in peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government and threatens to leave a power vacuum that could plunge the country deeper into violence.
Blinken, in an unannounced visit, met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as well as senior US officials in Kabul and briefed them on Biden’s announcement on Wednesday that he was ending “the forever war”, which began in response to the 2001 September 11 attacks.
“I wanted to demonstrate with my visit the ongoing commitment of the United States to the Islamic Republic and the people of Afghanistan,” Blinken said after meeting Ghani.
