US House Foreign Affairs Leaders To Visit State Dept. To View Kabul Cable - Spokesperson

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2023) US House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul and ranking member Gregory Meeks will visit the State Department later on Tuesday to view a classified cable that US diplomats sent prior to the United States' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

In March, the committee issued a subpoena to produce a July 2021 State Department Dissent Channel cable purportedly warning of the risk of a rapid takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in the event of a US departure from the country.

"We made an offer to the committee that Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Meeks could come here to the State Department to view both the dissent channel cable itself and Secretary (Antony) Blinken's response," Miller said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

"They accepted that offer and it's our understanding that they will visit the Department today to review the cable and the response."

McCaul threatened to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress if he did not provide the committee with the dissent cable US diplomats sent to the State Department from the US Embassy in Kabul.

In August 2021, the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) entered Kabul, prompting then-President Ashraf Ghani to resign and hastily leave the country. The United States then quickly withdrew from Afghanistan, while the nation plunged into greater economic disarray with food shortages that pushed it to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. The US military evacuated more than 122,000 people from Afghanistan.