Original title: The last call between Biden and Ghani was exposed, and both sides misjudged the situation
23 days after the call, on August 15, the Taliban entered Kabul and Ghani fled.
New Beijing News trainee reporter Chen Yikai
The last call between US President Biden and Afghan President Ghani was exposed. The content of the call showed that neither of them realized the imminent threat of the Taliban at the time.
According to a report by Reuters on August 31, local time in the United States, on July 23, Biden and Ghani had a call lasting approximately 14 minutes. This was also the last time Biden and Ghani had a call before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The audio and text transcriptions of the call were leaked to the media by anonymous sources without authorization from relevant authorities.
Judging from the content of the call, neither party seemed to realize that the threat from the Taliban was imminent. 23 days after the call, on August 15, the Taliban entered Kabul and Ghani fled.
During the call, Biden praised the Afghan government forces trained and funded by the US government. “You obviously have the best army, you have 300,000 well-equipped troops, and their combat capabilities are very strong.” Biden said.
Biden assured Ghani, “(After withdrawal) we will continue to work diplomatically, politically, and economically to ensure that your government can not only continue to exist, but also continue to develop.”
However, since then, as the Afghan government forces retreat steadily, Biden has repeatedly claimed in public speeches that “US troops are not entering Afghanistan to help Afghanistan build a country” and that “Afghanistan must fight for itself.” Biden’s remarks were criticized by the US media and politicians as “betraying allies.”
In the aforementioned call, Ghani told Biden that he believes that if the “rebalancing of military solutions” can be achieved, peace can be achieved. At that time, the Taliban already controlled about half of Afghanistan. Soon after, the Afghan government announced that it would change its military strategy and concentrate its efforts to defend the capital cities.
Reuters said that the White House declined to comment on the call, and Ghani did not respond.
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