Defending President Joe Biden's administration's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, United States Secretary of State Anthony Plinkin said during a hearing before the

United States House Committee on Foreign Relations that the Taliban was "committing" his country's troops to the date of withdrawal, and that it would have resumed its attacks on the troops if it exceeded that date.

Anthony Plinkin said: "The Taliban were clear with us that they would commit us to the exact date of withdrawal of our forces, and if we passed the date already agreed, the movement would have resumed its attacks on our forces."

Critics of former President Donald Trump's administration added: "We inherited from the Trump administration a specific date for withdrawal from Afghanistan, but without a plan to do so."

At the same time, he added that the United States "continues to assist any Americans who want to leave Afghanistan," and that "there is no final date regarding our mission to evacuate Americans and Afghans who have cooperated with us."

The US Secretary of State noted that "until the end of last week, there were about 100 Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave the country," noting that "this is constantly changing."

He continued: "We have ways to make up for the lack of troops on the ground in Afghanistan, and the threat of terrorism has increased dramatically in the past 20 years in different regions of the world, such as Syria, Somalia and Libya."

Regarding the Taliban's assumption of power in Afghanistan, Plinkin said: "We expect the Taliban to protect the freedom of travel and freedoms of the Afghan people, including women and minorities."

The American Minister went on: "There are many weapons that have been provided to Afghan forces over 20 years, and after their collapse those weapons ended up with the Taliban. Our troops have deactivated a number of equipment, and the equipment and weapons we see now are mostly unusable or soon out of service for maintenance. "

An advocate for Biden's administration continued: "The President, speaking with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani, discussed the extent to which the Afghan forces wanted to defend the country and the existence of a plan to do so."