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Tag: BIDEN

  • Biden to address UN General Assembly for first time as president

    Biden to address UN General Assembly for first time as president

    Joe Biden will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week for first the time as U.S president.

    The White House said on Monday that Bien would travel to New York on Tuesday next week to speak at the assembly’s General Debate.

    Republican Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor, was a harsh critic of the United Nations and advocated the U.S. increasingly going it alone.

    Biden, on the other hand, has relied increasingly on multilateralism and working together with other countries.

    The Democrat has been in office since Jan. 20.

    Leaders from more than 80 countries are expected to speak in person in New York, in contrast to 2020, when the General Assembly was largely conducted in a virtual format.

    The coronavirus pandemic, including the issue of vaccinations, and climate change are among the key topics expected to be discussed at this year’s General Assembly.

  • President Biden commemorates 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks with stops at all three attack sites

    President Biden commemorates 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks with stops at all three attack sites

    President Joe Biden commemorated the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States on Saturday with visits to each of the sites where hijacked planes crashed in 2001, honoring the victims of the devastating assault.

    Biden began the day in New York, where he and first lady Jill Biden attended a ceremony at the site where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood before planes struck the buildings and caused them to collapse. They then flew to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and were scheduled to return to the Washington area and visit the Pentagon.

    At the World Trade Center site, the New York Police Department pipes and drums band played “Hard Times Come Again No More” a U.S. folk song from the 1850s. Bruce Springsteen, playing an acoustic guitar, sang “I’ll See You in My Dreams”.

    The Bidens, withformer Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama,shared a moment of silence with the crowd at 8:46 to mark the time that the first plane hit.

    Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, where passengers on United Flight 93 overcame the hijackers and the plane crashed in a field, preventing another target from being hit.

    In New York City, on a clear, beautiful day similar to the weather 20 years ago, relatives read a list of the people who died at the towers.

    Biden, head bowed, did not make remarks. Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York at the time of the attacks, attended the ceremony. Former President Donald Trump, a New York native, did not.

    In Shanksville, the Bidens participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial where names of the deceased are etched on a marble wall.

    Also in Shanksville, in rare public comments, former President George W. Bush, who led the country at the time of the attacks, warned of the threat of domestic terrorism. Recalling the unity of the American people in the days after 9/11, he called for a return to that spirit amid growing political division in the country.

    Vice President Kamala Harris said the passengers and crew members who died in Shanksville focused on common humanity during a time of terror. “It is my hope and prayer that we continue to honor their courage, their conviction, with our own; that we honor their unity by strengthening our common bonds, by strengthening our global partnerships.”

    Later in the day Biden was to visit the Pentagon, the symbol of U.S. military might that was pierced by another of the planes that were used as missiles that day.

    The anniversary comes shortly after the end of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan that Bush launched some 20 years ago to root out al Qaeda, which carried out the 9/11 attacks.

    Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops in August, months after a deadline set by his Republican predecessor Trump, and the resulting rapid fall of the country to the Taliban has drawn criticism from members of both political parties.

  • Afghanistan exit is ‘best decision for America’ – Biden

    Afghanistan exit is ‘best decision for America’ – Biden

    President Joe Biden on Tuesday mounted a fierce defense of his exit from Afghanistan as the “best decision for America,” the day after the US military withdrawal celebrated by the Taliban as a major victory.

    “This is the right decision. A wise decision. And the best decision for America,” Biden said in an address to the nation in Washington, after he stuck to an August 31 deadline to end two decades of bloodshed that began and ended with the hardline Islamists in power.

    He spoke after the United Nations warned of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan, underscoring the daunting challenges that the victorious Taliban face as they transform from insurgent group to governing power.

    For America, Biden argued, the only choice in Afghanistan was “leaving or escalating.”

    And the president, whose critics have savaged him for his handling of the withdrawal, said the frenzied airlift — which saw the United States and its allies fly more than 120,000 people fleeing the new Taliban regime out of Afghanistan — was an “extraordinary success.”

    “No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history; only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it,” he said.

    The Taliban also saw the airlift as a success: a mark of their astonishing comeback and defeat of a global superpower.

    Taliban fighters fired weapons into the sky in Kabul in the early hours of Tuesday in jubilation after the last US plane flew out. Later, they swept into the capital’s vast airport.

    “Congratulations to Afghanistan… this victory belongs to us all,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters hours later on the airport runway.

    Mujahid said the Taliban’s victory was a “lesson for other invaders”.

    In Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the movement and the country’s second-largest city, thousands of celebrating supporters swept onto the streets.

  • Another attack highly likely in ‘next 24-36 hours’ at Kabul Airport – Biden

    Another attack highly likely in ‘next 24-36 hours’ at Kabul Airport – Biden

    The United States military commanders believe that another terror attack like the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport is “highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” President Joe Biden warned Saturday.

    After a briefing from his national security team, Biden said in a statement that a US drone strike targeting the Islamic State-Khorasan group, which claimed responsibility for Thursday’s carnage at the airport, was “not the last.”

    “The situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous, and the threat of terrorist attacks on the airport remains high. Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” Biden said.

    Scores of Afghan civilians were killed in the Kabul bombing Thursday, along with 13 US troops — several of them born around the time US military operations in Afghanistan began 20 years ago.

    The Pentagon said Saturday it had killed two “high profile” targets — logistics experts for the jihadist group — and wounded another in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan in retaliation for the suicide bombing.

    No civilians were hurt in the attack, Major General Hank Taylor told a news conference in Washington.

    “The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that’s a good thing,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

    US troops have been scrambling in dangerous and chaotic conditions to complete a massive evacuation operation from the Kabul airport by an August 31 deadline.

    Biden has pledged to stick to the agreed cut-off and had vowed to punish those responsible for the suicide blast. He said Saturday that the drone attack would not be the last.

    “We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay,” he said. “Whenever anyone seeks to harm the United States or attack our troops, we will respond. That will never be in doubt.”

  • Kabul evacuation one of largest, most difficult airlifts in history – Biden

    Kabul evacuation one of largest, most difficult airlifts in history – Biden

    United States President Joe Biden said Friday he could not guarantee the outcome of emergency evacuations from Kabul, calling it one of the most difficult airlift operations ever, but added he would mobilize “every resource” to repatriate Americans.

    “This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House, highlighting the dangerous elements of coordinating a mass evacuation while being surrounded by Taliban forces, who took over the Afghan capital on Sunday.

    “I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or… that it will be without risk of loss,” he said of the chaotic exit from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of war and rebuilding.

    “But as commander in chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary” to conduct a thorough evacuation, Biden added.

    “Let me be clear: Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home.”

    The president said US forces have airlifted 13,000 people out of Afghanistan since August 14, and 18,000 since July, with thousands more evacuated on private charter flights facilitated by the US government.

    Earlier this year, Biden — building on his predecessor Donald Trump’s 2020 call for a withdrawal from Afghanistan — imposed a deadline of August 31 for a full exit.

    Asked whether he could get all Americans out by that rapidly approaching date, Biden said he aimed to, but warned he would not second guess the judgment of military commanders on the ground.

    “I think we can get it done by then, but we’re going to make that judgment as we go,” he said.

    Biden said this week he had believed it was impossible to leave Afghanistan “without chaos ensuing” — a scenario that has played out in recent days with thousands of Afghans, including many who worked as translators or otherwise aided US operations, crowding outside the gates of Kabul airport.

    He also said his administration has been in “constant contact” with the Taliban to coordinate and facilitate the safe evacuation of US personnel.

    With the haphazard retreat making global headlines, Biden stressed he has seen “no question of credibility from our allies around the world” regarding the conduct of the American withdrawal, adding US forces were in close operational contact with NATO on the evacuation operation.

  • Taliban must decide whether it wants int’l recognition – Biden

    Taliban must decide whether it wants int’l recognition – Biden

    The Taliban must decide whether it wants to be recognised by the international community, according to U.S. President Joe Biden.

    Biden, who said this in an ABC interview aired on Thursday, added that he did not think the group had changed its fundamental beliefs.

    Asked if he thought the Taliban had changed, Biden told ABC News, “No.”

    “I think they’re going through a sort of existential crisis about: Do they want to be recognised by the international community as being a legitimate government? I’m not sure they do,” he said, adding that the group appeared more committed to its beliefs.

    But, he added, the Taliban also had to grapple with whether it could provide for Afghans.

    “They also care about whether they have food to eat, whether they have an income that … can run an economy.

    “They care about whether or not they can hold together the society that they in fact say they care so much about,” Biden said.

    He also added that it would take economic and diplomatic pressure — not military force — to ensure women’s rights.

  • U.S. troops stay in Kabul extended- Biden

    U.S. troops stay in Kabul extended- Biden

    U.S. troops may stay in Afghanistan past a 31 August deadline to evacuate Americans, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday.

    “If there’s American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” Biden told ABC News in an interview conducted on a day many U.S. lawmakers pressed him to extend the deadline that he had set for a final pullout.

    Biden has come under fierce criticism for his handling of the withdrawal, which in recent days has been dominated by scenes of chaos in and around the Kabul airport with people desperately trying to get out of the country.

    Biden defended his decisions, saying problems were inevitable in ending the 20-year U.S. involvement there.

    “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” he said.

    He also said the Taliban is cooperating for now in helping get Americans out of the country but “we’re having some more difficulty” in evacuating U.S.-aligned Afghan citizens.

    The speed with which Taliban forces retook Afghanistan, as U.S. and other foreign forces withdrew, has led to chaotic scenes at the airport with diplomats, foreign citizens and Afghans trying to flee but they are being impeded by crowds and Taliban checkpoints.

    “We’re going to do everything we can to continue to try and deconflict and create passageways for them to get to the airfield. I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Pentagon.

    A top U.S. diplomat separately said on Wednesday the United States expects the Taliban to allow Afghans who wish to leave Afghanistan to depart safely. read more

    Austin said the United States was not satisfied with how many people were being evacuated.

    “It’s obvious we’re not close to where we want to be in terms of getting the numbers through,” he said.

  • I stand ‘squarely’ behind decision, President Biden defends withdrawal of U.S. military from Afghanistan

    I stand ‘squarely’ behind decision, President Biden defends withdrawal of U.S. military from Afghanistan

    President Joe Biden has said he stands “squarely” behind the US exit from Afghanistan as he faces withering criticism over the Taliban’s lightning conquest of the war-torn country.

    “How many more American lives is it worth?” said the president.

    He said despite the “gut-wrenching” scenes in Kabul “there is never a good time to withdraw US forces”.

    On Sunday the Taliban declared victory after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled and his government collapsed.

    The militants’ return to rule brings an end to almost 20 years of a US-led coalition’s presence in the country.

    Kabul was the last major city in Afghanistan to fall to a Taliban offensive that began months ago but accelerated in recent days as they gained control of territories, shocking many observers.

    Biden returned on Monday to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat to make his first public remarks on Afghanistan in nearly a week.

    “If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” said Mr Biden.

    “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

    Mr Biden is facing intense political backlash over his April decision to order all American troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September – the 20 year anniversary of the terror attacks that triggered the US invasion.

    On Monday he said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been about nation-building.

    He said he had opposed the 2009 deployment of thousands more troops into the country by former President Barack Obama when he was vice-president.

    Mr Biden also noted he had inherited a deal negotiated with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan by May of this year.

    He said he was now the fourth US president to preside over America’s longest war.

    “I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president,” said Mr Biden, a Democrat.

    “I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference.”

    Mr Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in foreign policy and declared after assuming office this year that “America is back”.

    Last month he assured reporters it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would overrun the entire country.

    But he conceded on Monday that “this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated”.

    Opinion polls show most Americans support the US exiting Afghanistan.

    But Mr Biden is facing a barrage of criticism over the manner of the departure, after he withdrew US troops then sent thousands back in to help the evacuation.

    Images circulated on Sunday showing US helicopters circling the US Embassy in Kabul.

    For many, the pictures evoked America’s humiliating departure from Saigon, Vietnam, in 1975 when Mr Biden was a junior senator.

    Earlier on Monday, the US suspended its evacuation from Kabul after scenes of panic at the capital’s airport turned deadly.

    Thousands of civilians desperate to flee the country had thronged the tarmac.

  • COVID-19: US to impose fresh restrictions-Biden

    COVID-19: US to impose fresh restrictions-Biden

    US President Joe Biden said on Friday “in all probability” new guidelines or restrictions would be imposed in the United States in response to a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.

    Asked if Americans should expect new recommendations from health authorities or new restrictive measures, the president responded, “in all probability,” before leaving the White House by helicopter for the weekend.

    He did not stipulate what steps could be taken.

    US federal authorities, local officials and businesses have boosted health protocols in recent days in the face of surging cases spurred by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

    Biden added, however, that the country had had “a good day” on Thursday in terms of vaccinations.

    “Almost a million people got vaccinated,” he said, as his administration works to revive a sluggish inoculation campaign.

    “I am hopeful people are beginning to realize how essential it is.”

    US health authorities this week recommended that even vaccinated Americans again wear masks indoors in areas with high infection rates.

    The federal government has also tightened health regulations for its millions of employees, who must now either be vaccinated or wear masks and be tested regularly, even in areas with low case numbers.

     

  • Iran’s new hardline president rules out meeting U.S. President

    Iran’s new hardline president rules out meeting U.S. President

    Iran’s newly elected President Ebrahim Raisi has declined the opprtunity t0 meet U.S. President Joe Biden.

    During the first news conference after his election win, he said he could not imagine meeting Biden, as he ignored the 2015 nuclear deal by supporting “inhuman sanctions” against the Iranian population.

    “Biden has to lift the sanctions first to make the United States look credible again in Iran.’’

    The 60-year-old won Friday’s presidential elections with 60 per cent of the vote as the top candidate of the hardliners camp.

    After most competitive candidates were weeded out by the electoral body, Raisi stood practically unopposed for election.

    Participation was at a record low at below 50 per cent, which observers said was a move to boycott the election.

    Raisi, an arch-conservative cleric who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is accused of human rights abuses, is set to be inaugurated in August.

    Negotiations have been going on for weeks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal which has been in tatters since former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the accord in 2018.

    However, it has not shown signs of breakthrough after six rounds of talks in Vienna and it remains unclear how Raisi’s win would affect them.