His report State Department criticizes the way in which the US government handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, citing a lack of clarity in the orders, while he estimated that the decisions of Joe Biden and Donald Trump to withdraw troops “had serious implications for the sustainability’ of the Afghan government.

The report, which was completed more than a year ago but was only published on Friday, calls for reforms, notably to designate a single person in charge in future crises, and to separate emergency planning from political expediency.

The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had called for the investigation after the scenes of chaos at Kabul International Airport in August 2021, when the US military organized a mass withdrawal operation from Afghanistan.

The report hails the successful massive airlift that evacuated 125,000 people, including 6,000 American citizens, from the war-torn country.

But he points out that in order for this operation to come to an end, “big challenges” had to be faced due to the fact that high-ranking officials of the administration of US President Joe Biden “did not make clear decisions”.

“Continuous changes in directives and in the public message sent by Washington (…) added to the confusion,” the report added.

But Biden inherited delays in processing visa applications that had accumulated under the presidency of Donald Trump, who struck a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, he continued.

White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan: “He had to make a decision,” she told reporters.

The US had spent “billions of dollars on a war with no end in sight” and Biden “wanted to stop it,” he explained.

For his part, Steven Chowing, a spokesman for Trump, said in an email: “There is only one person responsible for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan: Joe Biden.”

The State Department report, based on 150 interviews with former and current officials, highlights the stark difference in style between the two administrations, with “a relative absence” of government agency preparation under Trump and “intense” procedures under Biden, the but who was surprised by the speed with which the situation developed.

US intelligence estimated that the Western-backed Afghan government would retain control of Kabul “for weeks or even months”.

“Fear of sending the wrong message, which would primarily imply that the US no longer trusted the Afghan government and thus hasten its fall, affected preparation and planning to some extent,” the report explains.

In a message to State Department staff following the report’s release, Blinken hailed the “extraordinary courage, ingenuity and dedication” of US personnel in Afghanistan and pledged to comply with the report’s recommendations.

“The lessons we learned have already helped us in our response in Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere,” he stressed.