EU foreign chief calls fall of Kabul “catastrophe”

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief has called the fall of Afghanistan’s capital and the resurgence of the Taliban “a catastrophe” and “nightmare” that laid bare a failure of intelligence and trans-Atlantic cooperation. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell also criticized U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday for underplaying the commitment to nation-building in Afghanistan. Borrell insisted that instilling the rule of law and achieving basic rights for women and minorities were goals of the Western military intervention in the country, along with stamping out terrorism emanating from the region. He says 106 employees of EU delegations and their families had safely left Afghanistan and landed in Madrid, while at least 300 remain behind.