US President Joe Biden on Friday said any attack by the Taliban on American forces or endeavors to disturb evacuation at the Kabul air terminal in Afghanistan will welcome a “swift and forceful response”. He additionally repeated that his administration is keeping a “laser focus on the counterterrorism mission”, alongside close coordination with partners in the locale. The US is additionally examining for any potential terrorist fear at or around the air terminal, including from the Islamic State associates in Afghanistan.
“We made clear to the Taliban that any attack, any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with a swift and forceful response,” Biden told media correspondents. “I’ve said all along, we’re going to retain a laser focus on our counterterrorism mission, working in close coordination with our allies and our partners and all those who have an interest in ensuring stability in the region.”
Biden said that US secretary of state Anthony Blinken met with Nato partners on Friday to talk about strategies to keep Afghanistan from being utilized as a base to dispatch a terror attack on America and its partners. For this reason, the US president has spoken with his counterparts in Britain, Germany, and France in the course of recent days.
“We all agreed that we should convene, and we will convene the G7 meeting next week, a group of the world’s leading democracies so that together we can coordinate our mutual approach, our united approach on Afghanistan moving forward,” said Biden.
The US president once again emphasized his safeguard behind the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan, asserting that the US completed its “mission” in the nation after eliminating the al Qaeda outfits there.
“Look, let’s put this thing in perspective here,” said Joe Biden. “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan as well as getting Osama bin Laden, and we did.”
“You’ve known my position for a long, long time,” he continued. “It’s time to end this war. The estimates of the cost of this war over the last 20 years range from a minimum of $1 trillion to a think tank at one of the universities saying $2 trillion. That somewhere between $150 million a day and $300 million a day.”
