Committee of Inquiry: Merkel thinks every little thing went effectively with the withdrawal from Afghanistan | EUROtoday

The questioning by the Bundestag’s Afghanistan investigation committee started with an in depth assertion from former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). At the start of the interrogation on Thursday, she emphasised that every little thing went effectively in 2021 with the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr and the evacuation of Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan. Merkel stated: “The schedule was adhered to. I was very relieved about that.”

Looking again, she emphasised that she believes that German participation within the army operation in Afghanistan was the correct factor to do. At that point there was a “reasonable hope” that no additional terrorist assaults can be deliberate from Afghanistan afterwards. However, the worldwide neighborhood has failed in all different targets – from the rule of legislation to ladies’s rights. She cited the explanations for this as, amongst different issues, a scarcity of cultural understanding amongst Western allies, nepotism and drug trafficking.

Chancellor didn’t desire a second “Saigon”

In her remarks, Merkel additionally addressed the implications of the so-called Doha Agreement, which the USA and the Taliban signed on August 29, 2020. It regulated the withdrawal of all troops from the USA and its allies from Afghanistan. In distinction, the Taliban ought to promise that Afghanistan is not going to turn into a retreat for terrorist teams sooner or later.

The final commander of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Ansgar Meyer, advised the committee members throughout his interrogation final 12 months that Merkel personally advised him that she didn’t need to see any photos like these in Saigon. “And we managed to do that as far as the military part is concerned,” he added. A number of weeks later he noticed “Saigon” on tv, he stated, referring to the worldwide evacuation operation in Kabul. “That affected me deeply.” The chaotic evacuation of US troops and their allies from the South Vietnamese capital Saigon within the spring of 1975 marked the tip of the Vietnam War.

Before questioning Merkel, the committee questioned her former head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun (CDU). The committee is meant to look at the circumstances of the hectic German evacuation from Kabul in August 2021 and the decision-making processes with a view to accepting Afghan native employees. The goal of the investigative committee can be to make suggestions for the federal authorities’s actions in future crises and conflicts.