In contrast to a UN report published last month, which claimed that the Taliban maintains “strong and symbiotic” ties with Al-Qaeda and that the latter is “rebuilding operational capability” on Afghan soil, US president Joe Biden stated that Washington is receiving assistance from the Afghan Taliban to “end” the threat posed by Al-Qaeda. After the Supreme Court rejected his student loan reduction programme, the US president made the comments during a press conference.
Joe Biden responded when asked if he acknowledged making mistakes when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, “No, no. All the evidence is coming back,” as per a White House transcript.
“Do you remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right,” Joe Biden added.
This comes after a US State Department study that attributed the disarray that ensued during the last weeks of the US pullout from Afghanistan to the administrations of both former US President Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The Taliban responded to Joe Biden’s statement and mentioned, “We consider remarks by US President Joe Biden about non-existence of armed groups in Afghanistan as acknowledgement of reality. It refutes the recent report by UN Sanctions Monitoring Team alleging the presence & operation of over twenty armed groups in Afghanistan.”
The UN report had earlier stated that “the link between the Taliban and both Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains strong and symbiotic. A range of terrorist groups have greater freedom of manoeuvre under the Taliban de facto authorities. They are making good use of this, and the threat of terrorism is rising in both Afghanistan and the region.”