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Joe Biden at a press conference at the White House
Photo: Susan Walsh / AP
According to US President Joe Biden, the chaotic scenes at Kabul airport after the Taliban came to power were inevitable in view of the planned withdrawal of troops.
Biden said in an interview with television station ABC on Wednesday that he did not know how it could have been possible to manage the withdrawal from Afghanistan given the situation "without chaos".
It was the first time since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan that Biden asked questions about troop withdrawal in a TV interview.
In the past few days, the US President has been heavily criticized for his decision to withdraw troops from the country earlier than originally planned - and apparently not having been adequately prepared for the situation.
When asked by ABC employee George Stephanopoulos whether the US government made mistakes or whether the situation could have been dealt with better, Biden replied: “No.
I don't think we could manage it in a way (...) to get out of it without chaos.
I don't know how to do that. "
In view of the rapid advance of the Taliban, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani "got on a plane and flew away," said Biden.
The US-trained Afghan forces "collapsed", the soldiers left their equipment and "ran away."
After the militant Islamist Taliban came to power, chaotic scenes broke out at the airport in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday and Monday.
When asked about videos showing Afghans trying to cling to a US transport plane on the runway, Biden said he realized at the time that the US military must quickly get control of the airport.
"And that's what we did."
Around 4,500 US soldiers are now stationed there to secure the airport and organize evacuations.
Originally, the military wanted to complete the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August.
In the ABC interview, Biden did not completely rule out the possibility that the full troop withdrawal planned by August 31 could be delayed.
"If there are still US citizens there, we'll stay to get them all out." But the goal is to complete the troop withdrawal by the end of August, said the president.
It is currently estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 US citizens are still in Afghanistan.
At the same time, Biden admitted that the US had "difficulties" in getting Afghan aid workers to safety.
The Taliban would partially "cooperate" and allow US citizens and embassy personnel to leave the country;
But things look different with Afghan local workers.
"The obligation is to get out everyone we can get out and everyone who should be got out," Biden said.
He spoke of around 50,000 to 65,000 Afghan aid workers, including their families.
aar / dpa / AFP