NEW YORK, August 19. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden does not believe that the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), which came to power in Afghanistan, has changed, as he himself said in an interview with ABC News.
When asked if he believed that the Taliban had changed, Biden answered in the negative. "I think they're going through sort of an existential crisis about do they want to be recognized by the international community as being a legitimate government. I'm not sure they do," he pointed out.
Biden agreed that the Taliban cared about their beliefs more. "But they also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they have an income <…> that they can make any money and run an economy. They care about whether or not they can hold together the society that they in fact say they care so much about. I'm not counting on any of that," the US president noted.
The US President also said that "the US authorities lacked consensus on a possible takeover by the Taliban movement in Afghanistan."
"There was no consensus," he pointed out. "If you go back and look at the intelligence reports, they said that it's more likely to be sometime by the end of the year," Biden said, adding: "The intelligence community did not say back in June or July that, in fact, this was gonna collapse like it did."
On April 14, Biden announced plans to end Washington’s operation in Afghanistan, the longest military campaign in American history. Taliban fighters entered Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul on August 15, taking control of the entire city within a few hours. Later, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country. Vice President Amrullah Saleh declared himself caretaker president, calling for armed resistance to the Taliban. Western nations are now evacuating their citizens and diplomatic personnel from Afghanistan.