Biden Open to Working with Taliban if It ‘Upholds the Basic Rights of Its People’

BY Frances Martel

American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a CNN interview on Sunday that the administration of President Joe Biden “can work with and recognize” a Taliban government in Afghanistan that respects women and “doesn’t harbor terrorists.”

The Taliban, the jihadist organization that ruled Afghanistan prior to the U.S. invasion of that country in 2001, completed its takeover of the country on Sunday, surrounding Kabul and negotiating the departure of the previous Afghan government. Ex-President Ashraf Ghani reportedly fled Sunday after delivering a bizarre televised speech in which he claimed to be working to regroup the Afghan military to fight the Taliban. Thousands of Afghan troops had deserted and fled into neighboring countries at the time of his claim.

The siege of Kabul arrived days before the planned complete departure of U.S. troops from the country, which Biden had scheduled to be completed by August 31. Under President Donald Trump, the White House had negotiated with the Taliban to leave the country by May 1, 2021, in exchange for the Taliban agreeing not to attack U.S. troops and agreeing to cut ties to international terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda. Biden broke the deal in April, changing the deadline for withdrawal to September, then revising it to August. Taliban officials responded by asserting that the agreement no longer bound them, as Biden had broken it, and launched 22,000 attacks between April and July, according to the former Afghan government.

FULL STORY AT https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/08/16/blinken-biden-open-working-taliban-if-it-upholds-basic-rights-its-people/#