US President Joe Biden will address the nation on Monday night (US time) after being criticised over the fiasco in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s capture of capital city Kabul.
According to reports, he has cut short his planned vacation to return to Washington DC from the Camp David presidential residence for the address.
Biden “will deliver remarks on Afghanistan” in the White House’s East Room, a statement said.
On Sunday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with their national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the drawdown of US civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies, and the ongoing security situation in Kabul.
As the Taliban entered Kabul and took over control of Afghanistan, an unprecedented situation unfolded in the war-torn nation.
Panic stricken people gathered in the airports to flee the nation amid fear, despair and panic
Following this, pressure mounted Sunday for Biden to demonstrate he was in charge.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan released a video statement saying “President Biden was not prepared to usher in a third decade of war and put U.S. troops in harm’s way, fighting and dying, to try to hold Afghanistan together when its own armed forces would not fight to hold it together.”
“We have a proven ability to fight terrorism effectively without having a large military footprint on the ground – and we will hold the Taliban accountable to not allowing Al Qaeda to have a safe haven in Afghanistan,” he said.
Last month, Biden defended his Afghanistan pullout by saying that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”
However, images of Taliban entering Kabul’s presidential palace and taking over control of Afghanistan, proved Biden’s predictions to be wrong.
Biden’s approach to the conflict of pulling out US troops has raised questions about his ability to handle the situation.
His deputy national security advisor Jon Finer has however defended the President saying: “The U.S. faces terrorist threats from a number of countries around the world… We have been able to and continue to address the threats in those countries without significant numbers of U.S. forces present on the ground.”
After he announced his decision in April to withdraw forces by September, Biden said the US would maintain an “over the horizon” capability to step back into Afghanistan if needed to counter terrorists.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Sohail Shaheen has said the Taliban government will include non-Taliban Afghans.
When asked if the new Taliban government will include members of the former Afghan government, Shaheen, speaking from Doha told CNN it would be “premature” right now to name who the officials will be, but he said that they are trying to have some “well known figures” to be part of the government.
“When we are saying an Afghan inclusive Islamic government, that means that other Afghans also have participation in the government,” he said.
