Taliban factions reportedly brawl inside presidential palace: LIVE UPDATES
A fight broke out last week inside the presidential palace in Kabul days after the country’s interim government was announced, according to a BBC report. The Taliban have been forced to deny rumors that their deputy prime minister
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President Joe Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee slammed President Joe Biden during an interview on "Fox & Friends First" on Wednesday over what he said is a lack of competency.
He argued that the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan goes "way beyond comedy" and gaffes by the president.
MIKE HUCKABEE: I think the rest of the world is smart enough to to look at this and realize that he is not in complete command of what he is doing. The greatest example of that though is not the things that are funny- it's the things that are not funny. What happened in Afghanistan, there is nothing funny about that, and one has to wonder, what did he really understand about the decision to pull out of Bagram Air Base? He brought the military out before he brought the civilians out. He botched the whole exit of getting American citizens out. He had the State Department tell American citizens to get to the airport and then told them not to get on the plane leaving them stranded. No matter what Jen Psaki says, they were stranded. Those were things that move way beyond the comedy and get down to the life and death situation for Americans. I think a lot of Americans are very frightened that if they find themselves in a bad place overseas held hostage this government isn't competent to deal with it in a way that we've come to expect our government to be able to do.
Afghans wait in front of a bank branch as they try to withdraw money in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
Local media reported that members of Afghanistan’s women soccer team and their families arrived in Pakistan Wednesday after fleeing their country in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover.
According to Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry, the Afghan women soccer players entered though the northwestern Torkham border crossing holding valid travel documents.
“We welcome Afghanistan women football team,” Chaudhry tweeted.
However, Pakistan’s English-language The DAWN newspaper reported Wednesday that the Afghan female footballers were issued emergency humanitarian visas following the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
It was not clear how many players and their family members were allowed to enter Pakistan.
The Taliban reportedly don’t want women to participate in sports.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., questions Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Credit: Drew Angerer/Pool via AP
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is demanding that Congress and the Biden administration designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization and its new government as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The politician is expected to roll out legislation on Wednesday that would prohibit federal departments and agencies from taking any action that states or implies recognition of the Taliban’s claim of sovereignty over Afghanistan.
The legislation is also supported by GOP Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.
A major brawl broke out last week inside Kabul's presidential palace days after the country’s interim government was announced over internal clashes on who deserves credit for the U.S. withdrawal and how the power positions were doled out, a report said.
The BBC’s report Wednesday, citing senior Taliban officials, said the fight was between two factions that wanted to take credit for defeating the U.S.
Mulllah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, a senior leader of the Haqqani Network, "exchanged strong words, as their followers brawled with each other nearby," the BBC reported.
In the days following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, China has made public advances to bolster its relationship with the Taliban in an apparent effort to expand its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
"They’re gloating. This undoubtedly furthers Beijing’s narrative of the U.S. inevitable decline, which really started to be integral to China’s global strategic communications following the financial crisis in 2008,"
Heino Klinck, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia under the Trump administration, told Fox News. Klinck said the perceived "economic weakness in 2008" played into China's strategy to persuade underdeveloped nations that the U.S. democratic capitalist system is failing.
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