DUBAI, UAE: Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief says he is deeply concerned that US weapons could fall into the hands of militant groups such as al-Qaeda, which reinforce a sworn enemy of the states. United after leaving Afghanistan says it was mismanaged.
“I don’t know what word to use, if incompetence, carelessness, mismanagement, it was all a combination of these things,” Prince Turki Al-Faisal told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Saturday in Paris.
Prince Turki Al-Faisal served as head of the Saudi intelligence services between 1979 and 2001, helping to coordinate anti-communist activity in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. He later tried – and failed – to negotiate the return of Osama bin Laden to Saudi Arabia in the years leading up to 9/11.
“You know that Al Qaeda ruled the kingdom before anyone else,” Al-Faisal said, referring to Saudi Arabia. “This aspect is very worrying, and now, with this armament, the Taliban’s ally, Al Qaeda, can get its hands on it, it will be even more worrying,” he added.
Taliban forces have been represented with a series of weapons and vehicles made in the United States confiscated from the Afghan army, causing fear in Saudi Arabia about the ongoing threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda and where and with who could finish the teams.
“When Trump made the deal with the Taliban before he left office, it was inevitable that the government would lose its legitimacy,” Al-Faisal said. “It’s hard to know what led the United States to negotiate with them,” he added.
The comments are the first openly critical response by Arab allies in the U.S. Gulf since the fall of Kabul on 15 August.
They come when President Joe Biden warned on Saturday that another attack on Kabul airport was very likely. The president also pledged to launch another retaliatory strike against terrorists responsible for Thursday’s suicide attack that killed 13 members of the U.S. service and more than 110 Afghans.
ISIS-K, known as the Khorasan Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the attack. ISIS-K and the Islamic State once allied with Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization previously led by Osama bin Laden that orchestrated the 9/11 attacks and other significant attacks in recent decades.
The increasingly complex threat of ISIS-K and others is a major challenge for U.S. and Western forces competing to evacuate remaining military personnel and Afghan allies fleeing Afghanistan before withdrawal period of 31 August.
NATO has made it clear that it hoped the Taliban would maintain its “commitment” not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorists, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told CNBC in a recent interview, but not yet. it is unclear whether the Taliban are capable of handling possible contagion, or whether the latest attack on Kabul could encourage individuals or terrorist groups throughout the region.
Regional actors
Prince Turki said that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and foreign powers in strategic competition with the United States, such as China and Russia, would be Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, exerting significant influence in Afghanistan and between the terrorist groups that interconnect with it after the American withdrawal.
An American sailor attends an evacuation checkpoint (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021.
Staff Sergeant. Víctor Mancilla | US Marine Corps via Reuters
“We have seen the Russian ambassador, the Chinese ambassador, the Iranian ambassador and the Pakistani ambassador not only stay in Kabul, but make statements about future relations with the Taliban,” he said.
“There is something going on between the Taliban and these countries about where they will go in the future,” he said.
China was one of the first countries to express its willingness to associate with the Taliban when it came to power in Afghanistan, seeking to regain the place where it left the United States.
However, while global confidence in U.S. leadership may have been shaken, Al-Faisal said the episode did not necessarily mean the end of U.S. supremacy worldwide: “I think it still it is too early to judge whether the United States is at a watershed moment. ” dit.