Risch and Colleagues Urge POTUS to Ensure Safe Evacuation of American Citizens and Allies from Afghanistan

BOISE, Idaho – U.S Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) in a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to take the necessary steps to ensure all American citizens, allies, and partners wishing to leave Afghanistan are safely evacuated. The letter further urges the president to see that American Mark Freichs, who is still being held hostage by the Taliban, is set free, and ensure that the Taliban do not take more Americans hostages.

“Now that the Taliban have taken over the majority of Afghanistan’s urban centers, many Americans and vulnerable Afghans are trapped without the ability to leave the country,” the senators wrote. “Regardless of the merits and drawbacks of your decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, the United States has a responsibility to those who are now at risk because of that decision and its execution by your administration. Their safety from being taken hostage or facing reprisals from the Taliban should be your foremost priority in the coming weeks and even months.”

The full text of the letter can be found here. 

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