Biden, Ghani did not foresee Taliban takeover in their last call

Before Afghan government collapsed on August 15, the US president pressed his Afghan counterpart to ‘change perception’.

In the last call between US President Joe Biden and his Afghanistan counterpart before the Taliban seized control of the country, the leaders discussed military aid, political strategy and messaging tactics, but neither Biden nor Ashraf Ghani appeared aware of or prepared for the immediate danger of the entire country falling to the armed group, a transcript reviewed by Reuters shows. The men spoke for roughly 14 minutes on July 23. On August 15, Ghani fled the presidential palace, and the Taliban entered Kabul. Since then, tens of thousands of desperate Afghans have fled and 13 US troops and scores of Afghan civilians were killed in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during the frenetic US military evacuation.