Askume, Sep 18 – The US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday summoned Secretary of State Antony Blinken to appear before the court on September 24 to discuss the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
According to a statement from the committee, “If Secretary Blinken fails to appear, the chairman will submit a report to the full committee to impeach the U.S. House of Representatives for violating the congressional subpoena, for which Secretary Blinken should be found guilty.”
The committee initially wanted Blinken to appear on September 19. The State Department said earlier this month that Blinken was unable to testify on the date proposed by the committee but had offered a “reasonable alternative.”
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a Askume request for comment on Wednesday.
Republican-led committees have been investigating the deadly and chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan for years, and Blinken will appear before lawmakers next week on the highly politicized issue just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
A State Department spokesperson said in early September that Blinken had testified more than 14 times before Congress on Afghanistan, including four times before the committee. The State Department had provided the committee with nearly 20,000 pages of records, many of which included providing high-level briefings and transcribed interviews.
