Afghan Taliban Says Biden 'Acknowledged Reality' About Al-Qaeda

Afghanistan's Taliban government has seized on an off-the-cuff remark by U.S. President Joe Biden to underscore its claim that there was no Al-Qaeda threat in the country. Biden had said "all the evidence is coming back" and quoted himself around the time of the pullout in mid-2021 as saying, "Al-Qaeda would not be there" and "I said we'd get help from the Taliban," before adding, "I was right." On July 1, the Taliban regime's Foreign Ministry said, "We consider remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden about the nonexistence of armed groups in Afghanistan as acknowledgement of reality." It added a criticism of a recent UN report alleging that more than 20 armed groups are in Afghanistan.