NEW YORK, August 19./TASS/. Al Qaeda terrorist organization (outlawed in Russia) may return to Afghanistan sooner than 18 to 24 months after the withdrawal of US troops as predicted earlier, US President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC News, the full transcript of which was released on Thursday.
"It could be. But George, look, here's the deal. Al Qaeda, ISIS, they metastasize. There's a significantly greater threat to the United States from Syria," the president said in reply to a question from ABC New’s George Stephanopoulos who spoke to the US president in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
"There's a significantly greater threat from East Africa. There's significant greater threat to other places in the world than it is from the mountains of Afghanistan. And we have maintained the ability to have an over-the-horizon capability to take them out," the president said in the interview.
On August 15, fighters from the Taliban radical militant group entered Kabul without any resistance and established full control over the Afghan capital within a matter of hours. President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani announced that he had stepped down to avoid bloodshed and fled the country.
In this situation, Afghanistan’s Vice President Amrullah Saleh declared himself as the country’s caretaker president, calling on the army to resist the Taliban. Western countries are evacuating their nationals and embassy staff.