Blinken defends US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan

Tehran, IRNA- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was the greatest achievement of the administration of President Joe Biden

According to IRNA's Monday morning report, citing the New York Times Blinken said: “Washington learnt important lessons from its presence in Afghanistan”.  

"The experience of being in Afghanistan helped us act differently in the face of the crises in Syria, Lebanon and Israel," he added.

Emphasizing that we are not apologizing for ending America's longest war in Afghanistan, the US Secretary of State noted that Biden’s move made it clear that another generation of Americans will not have to fight and die there.

The United States and its western allies invaded Afghanistan under the so-called war on terror. But after more than two decades of bloodshed in the country, Washington failed to either defeat the terrorism or bring a relative calm to Afghanistan.

On August 30, 2021, the US withdrawal officially concluded when the last American military aircraft left the soil of Afghanistan – thus handing the country back to the Taliban, who had been dethroned from power in the U.S. invasion two decades before.

The US pull out sparked heated political debate in Washington, with the Republicans blaming Democratic President Biden for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ensuing instability that the country has faced for over three years.

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