在美国广播公司新闻的独家采访中，国务卿安东尼·布林肯(Antony Blinken)在民主党议员和难民倡导者对维持特朗普时代的限制提出的一连串批评中为拜登政府辩护。难民目前的录取。
当乔·拜登总统承诺接纳125，000名难民在明年秋天的新财年，布林肯不会承诺一个数字，他告诉美国广播公司的《本周》联合主播玛莎·拉德达兹，“听着，总统已经清楚他想去哪里，但我们必须，你知道，专注于我们能做什么，当我们能做的时候。”
。@ MarthaRaddatz按秒。拜登政府的难民上限:“明年12.5万——这是你的目标吗?”“嗯，听着，总统已经清楚他想去哪里，”布林肯说。https://t.co/SU8sA3lmXXpic.twitter.com/zBSqqHq3Xh
—本周(@ThisWeekABC)2021年4月18日
布林肯和白宫的观望语言，引用“大批死亡”的州一些著名的民主党人以及难民安置机构表示，他们准备接受拜登在本财年剩余时间里提供62，500美元的承诺。
“拜登总统违背了他恢复我们人性的承诺。众议院进步核心小组主席、众议员普拉米拉·贾亚帕尔(Pramila Jayapal)在一份声明中说:“我们不能背弃世界各地的难民，包括数百名已经获准重新安置的难民，他们已经卖掉了自己的财产，准备登机。”
因此，在白宫周五宣布拜登将留任前总统后唐纳德·特朗普15000难民的历史最低限额，政府收回了原话并表示将在下个月提高上限。
“我们能够开始让那些已经在筹备中的人和那些不能进来的人进来。布林肯说:“从今天开始，我们将在五月中旬再次访问它。
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据重新安置机构国际救援委员会(International Rescue Committee)称，约35，000名难民已被审查并批准在美国重新安置。
根据拜登的命令，这些重新安置可以重新开始，但它们将是有限的，政府周五表示，在几周的抵达后，将在下个月设定“最终的、增加的难民上限”，并指责特朗普政府让该计划“破裂”，用布林肯的话说。
“根据我们现在在遗产继承方面所看到的，并且能够看到已经到位的东西，我们可以到位的东西，我们可以多快到位，很难达到本财年的62，000人，”他说——他告诉国会，政府将在2月份的通知中接受这个数字。
“我们将在未来几周再次讨论这个问题，”他补充道。
难民安置机构一致认为，特朗普通过削减资金和繁琐的审查措施使国家计划支离破碎，但他们表示，如果政府帮助提供资源，他们可以迅速扩大规模，以达到拜登的最初目标62，500人。
相反，拜登周六将目前难民人数保持在较低水平归咎于抵达美国南部边境的移民人数达到历史最高水平，布林肯没有提到这个原因。虽然一些相同的政府机构同时处理这两种情况，但与在进入美国领土时提出请求的寻求庇护者相比，难民在海外接受审查并被批准前往美国。
政府还面临着一些民主党人和许多共和党人对拜登的批评本周的决定从…撤出所有美国军队阿富汗到9月11日，在美国第一次入侵推翻塔利班政府近20年后，塔利班政府为策划恐怖袭击的基地组织成员提供了安全避难所。
尽管情报负责人本周警告说，美国在该国的能见度下降，但布林肯说，政府将保持“观察阿富汗恐怖威胁是否死灰复燃的手段”...实时，有时间采取行动。”
美国情报部门周三发布的年度评估称，撤军有可能使恐怖主义威胁死灰复燃，而且美国军队可能不会察觉到这一点。
“当美国军队撤军的时候，美国政府收集威胁并采取行动的能力将会减弱。这是事实，”中央情报局局长比尔·伯恩斯说。
独家:秒。国务卿安东尼·布林肯为总统辩护。拜登承诺从阿富汗撤军:“20年前我们去了阿富汗，我们去是因为我们在9/11遭到袭击...我们实现了既定的目标。”https://t.co/SU8sA3lmXXpic.twitter.com/W9zp8moZQh
—本周(@ThisWeekABC)2021年4月18日
Blinken没有消除这些担忧，但表示政府“将确保我们有适当的资产来应对这种情况，如果这种情况再次发生，我们将看到这种情况，并能够处理这种情况。”
除了对美国或其他国家的恐怖主义威胁之外，人们强烈担心塔利班正在等待美国的退出来推翻阿富汗政府。布林肯似乎不同意告诉拉德达茨，“每个人都认识到这场冲突没有军事解决办法。因此，如果他们重新开始，他们将陷入一场不符合他们利益的长期战争。”
目前还不清楚塔利班是否这样看待局势。其领导人本周表示，在美国和北约部队撤出之前，塔利班不会参加与阿富汗政府的和平谈判，但也表示，塔利班仍然“致力于找到和平解决阿富汗问题的办法”。
布林肯说，美国将全力支持这些和平谈判，这些谈判预计将在未来几周由土耳其主办的峰会上重新开始。
“如果塔利班要以某种方式参与治理，如果它想得到国际认可，如果它不想成为贱民，它就必须参与政治进程，”他说。
即使这一政治进程取得成功，人们仍然深感关切的是，随着塔利班以某种形式掌权，妇女、女童和少数民族的权利充其量将受到限制。但布林肯承诺，美国的外交、经济和发展支持将以这些权利得到尊重为条件。
他说:“任何在这方面倒退的国家，如果试图压制他们，将不会得到国际承认，也不会拥有国际地位，事实上，我们将采取行动，尽最大努力确保他们不能这样做。”
Blinken defends Biden's refugee cap, Afghanistan withdrawal in exclusive interview
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration amid a barrage of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and refugee advocates for maintaining a Trump-era limit onrefugeeadmissions for now.
While President Joe Bidenpledged to admit 125,000 refugeesin the new fiscal year next fall, Blinken wouldn't commit to a number, telling ABC's "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz, "Look, the president's been clear about where he wants to go, but we have to be, you know, focused on what we're able to do when we're able to do it."
.@MarthaRaddatzpresses Sec. of State Antony Blinken on the Biden administration's refugee cap: "125,000 next year -- is that your goal?""Well, look, the president has been clear about where he wants to go," Blinken says.https://t.co/SU8sA3lmXXpic.twitter.com/zBSqqHq3Xh
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC)April 18, 2021
That wait-and-see language from Blinken and the White House,citing the "decimated" stateof the refugee resettlement program, enraged several prominent Democrats, as well as refugee resettlement agencies who said they are ready to accept Biden's pledge of 62,500 for the rest of this fiscal year.
"President Biden has broken his promise to restore our humanity. We cannot turn our back on refugees around the world, including hundreds of refugees who have already been cleared for resettlement, have sold their belongings, and are ready to board flights," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the House Progressive Caucus, said in a statement.
As a result, after the White House had announced Friday that Biden would keep former PresidentDonald Trump's historic low cap of 15,000 refugees,the administration backtrackedand said it would raise the cap next month.
"We're able to start to bring people in who've been in the pipeline and who weren't able to come in. That is starting today, and we're going to revisit it in the middle of May," Blinken said.
Some 35,000 refugees have been vetted and approved for resettlement in the U.S., according to the International Rescue Committee, a resettlement agency.
With Biden's order, those resettlements can begin again, but they will be limited, with the administration saying Friday it would set a "final, increased refugee cap" next month after a few weeks of arrivals and blamed the Trump administration for leaving the program "broken," in Blinken's words.
"Based on what we've now seen from in terms of the inheritance and being able to look at what was in place, what we could put in place, how quickly we could put it in place, it's going to be very hard to meet the 62,000 number this fiscal year," he said -- the number he told Congress the administration would accept in a February notice.
"We're going to be revisiting this over the coming weeks," he added.
Refugee resettlement agencies agreed that Trump left the nation's program in tatters through funding cuts and onerous vetting measures, but they've said they could scale up quickly to meet Biden's original target of 62,500, if the administration helped provide resources.
Instead, Biden on Saturday blamed the historic number of migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border for keeping the refugee cap low for now -- a reason Blinken didn't cite. While some of the same government agencies deal with both, refugees are vetted overseas and granted approval to travel to the U.S. compared to asylum seekers who make their requests upon entering U.S. territory.
The administration is also facing criticism from some Democrats and many Republicans over Biden'sdecision this weekto withdraw all U.S. troops fromAfghanistanby Sept. 11 -- nearly 20 years after the U.S. first invaded to topple the Taliban government that provided safe haven to the al-Qaida operatives who planned the terrorist attacks.
Despite intelligence chiefs warning this week of a decrease in U.S. visibility in the country, Blinken said the administration will maintain "the means to see if there is a resurgence, a reemergence of a terrorist threat from Afghanistan ... in real time, with time to take action."
The U.S. intelligence community's annual assessment, released Wednesday, said withdrawal risks a resurgence of that terrorism threat -- and it may go undetected by U.S. forces.
"When the time comes for the U.S. military to withdraw, the U.S. government's ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That is simply a fact," said CIA Director Bill Burns.
EXCLUSIVE: Sec. of State Antony Blinken defends Pres. Biden's pledge to withdraw troops from Afghanistan: "We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago, and we went because we were attacked on 9/11... we achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve."https://t.co/SU8sA3lmXXpic.twitter.com/W9zp8moZQh
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC)April 18, 2021
Blinken didn't dismiss those concerns but said the administration is "going to make sure that we have assets appropriately in place to see this coming, if it comes again, to see it and to be able to to deal with it."
Beyond the terrorism threat to the U.S. or others, there are strong concerns the Taliban is waiting for an American exit to topple the Afghan government.Blinken appeared to disagree, telling Raddatz, "What everyone recognizes is there's no military resolution to the conflict. So if they start something up again, they're going to be in a long war that's not in their interest."
It's unclear if the Taliban views the situation that way. Its leadership said this week that the Taliban will not participate in peace negotiations with the Afghan government until U.S. and NATO forces exit but also said the Taliban remains "committed to finding a peaceful solution to the Afghan problem."
Blinken said the U.S. will throw its full weight behind supporting those peace negotiations, which are supposed to restart again in the coming weeks with a summit hosted by Turkey.
"If the Taliban is going to participate in some fashion in governance, if it wants to be internationally recognized, if it doesn't want to be a pariah, it's going to have to engage in a political process," he said.
Even if that political process succeeds, there are deep concerns that with the Taliban in power in some form, the rights of women and girls and minorities will be curbed at best. But Blinken committed that U.S. diplomatic, economic and development support would be conditioned on those rights being respected.
"Any country that moves backwards on that, that tries to repress them, will not have that international recognition, will not have that international status, and indeed, we will take action to make sure to the best of our ability that they can't do that," he said.
