KABUL (Pajhwok): The Biden administration will not allow new threats to emerge in Afghanistan even after the withdrawal of US forces, says a top American official.
Speaking on Fox News, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan assuaged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s concern that the US pullout meant giving Afghanistan back to the Taliban.
“President Biden is not going to take his eye off the ball,” remarked his advisor, who said the US would be in a position to deal with any threats from militants by keeping troops in the region. Based on intelligence, the NSA added, the US would have “months of warning before al-Qaida or ISIS could have an external plotting capability from Afghanistan.”
He suggested the US needed to allocate resources and capabilities across a range of countries and continents, not just focus them on Afghanistan, to protect itself from the terrorist threat. Sullivan promised the US would keep extending civilian and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan even after its exit. The NSA admitted there were “no guarantees” about the domestic future of the Afghan government and the survival of democracy in the country.
