In the last phone call between Biden and his Afghan then-counterpart Ashraf Ghani, the American president said they needed to change perceptions of the Taliban's rapid advance 'whether it is true or not,' according to excerpts published on Tuesday. President Joe Biden spoke with President Ashraf Ghani for about 14 minutes on July 23. 'I don't think anybody anticipated that,' Biden told ABC News when asked about the swift disintegration of the Afghan security forces. 'The intelligence community did not say, back in June or July, that in fact this was going to collapse like it did,' Biden told ABC News earlier this month. And he urged the Afghan president to bring together some of the most powerful anti-Taliban warlords in a show of support to reverse perceptions of a crumbling government.

Source: Daily Mail August 31, 2021 22:44 UTC