WASHINGTON D.C., DC — More than three months after the U.S. pulled all of our military units out of Afghanistan, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said all but three Americans who wanted to leave that country have now been able to do so.
That’s one of several pieces of information King brought back after a quick fact-finding trip to Pakistan and Qatar over the weekend.
King was joined by three Republican senators from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said they met with the Emir of Qatar, the prime minister of Pakistan, and top military leaders of both countries.
The primary reason, he said, was to see firsthand what is happening in the region since the U.S. withdrawal and to ensure strong ties with the two countries that played critical roles in helping 120,000 Afghans escape after the government of their country collapsed, and the Taliban took over.
“We’ve been continuing to get Americans and Afghans who assisted us out of Afghanistan since August 31 on a steady basis,” King said. That was the date of the final U.S. military evacuation flights and withdrawal.
“I’m trying to finalize numbers, but we were told there are only three American citizens in Afghanistan who want to leave,” he said.
King said they were told there were roughly 100 Americans with dual citizenship still in that country who, at the moment, want to remain.
The senator said Qatar has been a strong U.S. ally in the region, with American military units based there. Pakistan, he said, has a more “complicated relationship” with the U.S because of history with the Taliban. However, he said Pakistan shares the U.S. opposition to the ISIS-K terror group.
King said they were well received in both countries and shared a desire to maintain strong ties to oppose terror and help ease the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Thousands of people in that country are in desperate need of food as the economy under the Taliban has collapsed.
Providing much-needed relief to Afghan people will require an international effort, he said, and Pakistan and Qatar will play critical roles.
“The challenge is how do we deal with famine in Afghanistan in the winter, which is a very rough place in the winter, without funneling aid through the Taliban, which we don’t want to do. And that’s where the Pakistanis come in, and working with the UN and non-governmental organizations to get aid to the people who are literally starving,” he said.
King said he and the other senators shared ideas after those meetings and that he “has a list” of proposals he intends to deliver to the White House in hopes they can help guide U.S. policy going forward.
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