US President Joe Biden on Friday assured visiting Afghan leaders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah of sustained American support after the withdrawal of troops but made it clear that the fate of Afghanistan will now be in the hands of its people now. “Afghans are going to have to decide their future, what they want,” he told them.
Afghan President Ghani, at the same time, sought to project confidence in the face of resurgent Taliban. He dismissed a US intelligence report that has forecast the fall of Kabul within six months of the departure of the last of US troops, scheduled for as early as July, saying such dire prediction “turned out false” in the past.
Biden and Ghani, who was accompanied by Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation met at the White House amidst growing concerns about the fate of the current government, with continued escalation of violence by the Taliban, who have backed out of peace talks till the departure of US troops.
SURGE IN VIOLENCE
The Biden administration has acknowledged being concerned by the violence but has shown no sign yet it might slow down the pace of withdrawal of troops or call it off. In the bluntest remarks on the issue yet, secretary of state Antony Blinken said in Paris on Thursday that the US is assessing the situation on the ground in Afghanistan and “whether the Taliban is, at all, serious about a peaceful resolution of the conflict”.