{"id":427848,"date":"2021-04-15T14:50:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T18:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=427848"},"modified":"2021-04-15T14:50:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T18:50:55","slug":"secy-blinken-makes-unannounced-visit-to-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/secy-blinken-makes-unannounced-visit-to-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Secy. Blinken makes unannounced visit to Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsecy-blinken-makes-unannounced-visit-to-afghanistan%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=427848&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_2398457\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2398457\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, right, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the Sapidar Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, April 15, 2021. Blinken made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to sell Afghan leaders and a wary public on President Joe Biden\u2019s decision to withdraw all American troops from the country and end America\u2019s longest-running war. (Sapidar Palace via AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 11:38 AM PT \u2013 Thursday, April 15, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the time has come for American troops to withdraw from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve achieved the objective we set out nearly 20 years ago,\u201d he stated. \u201cWe never intended to have a permanent military presence here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While speaking during a surprise visit to Kabul, Blinken said the threat from Al-Qaeda has significantly degraded and it\u2019s time for our troops to come home. The secretary added, the U.S. partnership with Afghanistan will continue and he issued a warning to the Taliban if the terror group attempts any attacks on American troops.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf as our forces are withdrawing, the Taliban were to attack them, it would be met with a very forceful response,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n<p>Blinken\u2019s visit came less than 24-hours after Joe Biden announced the U.S. would withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan by September 11. He noted, there is no military solution to the conflict that remains in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only path forward to a durable, lasting and just end of the conflict,\u201d he stated. \u201cIs through negotiation, is through a political agreement and, ultimately, is through through compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he came to Afghanistan because it was important to him and President Biden to convey in person America\u2019s commitment to an enduring partnership with Afghanistan and the Afghan people. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZVkmtfJUlq\">pic.twitter.com\/ZVkmtfJUlq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TOLOnews\/status\/1382681756109836291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he respects Biden\u2019s decision, but other Afghan officials are pessimistic. Critics have said the move would strengthen threats from various terror groups in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Blinken said the U.S. will \u201cintensify\u201d its diplomacy on Afghanistan and do \u201ceverything it can\u201d to secure a peace agreement between Kabul and the insurgents.<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/u-s-navy-decommissions-uss-bonhomme-richard-ship-to-be-dismantled-after-massive-fire\/\"> U.S. Navy decommissions USS Bonhomme Richard, ship to be dismantled after massive fire<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, right, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at the Sapidar Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, April 15, 2021. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2276068,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}