John Kirby Pushes Back on Fox & Friends: Al Qaeda Strike Proves Afghanistan is Not a Safe Haven
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby pushed back on the idea that al-Qaeda would be able to find sanctuary in Afghanistan after the drone strike that killed the terror organization’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Kirby interviewed Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday, where he went into detail on the intelligence-gathering operation before the CIA killed Zawahiri with a drone strike near Kabul. Kilmeade noted that Zawahiri’s presence in Afghanistan signifies a violation of the Doha Agreement by the Taliban, and he asked Kirby, “where’s the rest of the al-Qaeda guys right now?”
Kirby agreed that the Biden administration regards this as a Doha agreement violation, but he argued that the successful Zawahiri strike “sends a pretty powerful signal to the Taliban and anybody else who might harbor al-Qaeda terrorists going forward.” He insisted that al-Qaeda’s foothold around the country is “very small,” and “I think if I was a member of al-Qaeda, I’d be thinking again about how safe a haven Afghanistan would be for me right now.”
Kilmeade remarked that the United Nations has determined an al-Qaeda presence in 15 Afghan provinces, then he added that “I do think one would believe if the leader of al-Qaeda is not in a cave, or hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan, that he’s on the balcony in the capital, that al-Qaeda feels pretty good about their presence in that country and there is more than just one guy.”
“That’s not good news for us,” Kilmeade said, “but the good news is he’s dead.”
“I would actually throw that back a little bit, Brian,” Kirby responded. “I don’t think they’re feeling too good about being in Afghanistan right now.”
“Really?” Kilmeade asked. “If they were worried about it, they’d be hiding in Pakistan where we couldn’t even find them.”
“I don’t think Al Qaeda can look at what happened over the last 48 hours and feel like Afghanistan is gonna be much of a safe haven for them,” Kirby reiterated. “We have proven that over-the-horizon counterterrorism capability works, we did it to them fairly well in the last 48 hours, and we’re gonna stand by and be ready if we have to do it again.”
Watch above via Fox News.
