Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday pressed Sec. of State Anthony Blinken to abstain from sending $64 million in aid to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Their exchange comes one day after the United States agreed to send the large sum in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in accordance with the United Nations’ emergency call to prevent famine and a public health crisis, The Hill reported.
After the Taliban swiftly gained control of the region and weapons amid the United States’ military withdrawal, Paul noted that they cannot be trusted with the money.
“They now have $80 billion worth of weapons, 350,000 automatic weapons. Are we really naive enough to believe that we’re just going to keep sending charity to Afghanistan, and they’re not going to interrupt it?,” the Republican senator said, according to Just the News. “I think that’s a foolish notion.”
Paul also highlighted that there is already $10 billion in U.S. foreign aid allocated for Afghanistan that is separate from the additional $64 million.
“I hope you won’t release the money, and I think it would be a big mistake,” he opined.
The senator also grilled Blinken on a recent drone strike that killed several Afghan civilians and children, Business Insider reported.
Paul asked Blinken if he knew whether the target killed was actually an aid worker or ISIS-K operative.
“I don’t know,” Blinken admitted.
The Kentucky Republican snapped back, “You’d think you’d kind of know before you off someone with a predator drone.”
