Donald Trump calls Afghanistan situation 'biggest embarrassment' after Taliban siege

Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday blamed Joe Biden for the Afghanistan crisis calling it 'the greatest embarrassment in the history of the United States'. Trump stated that after witnessing the Taliban takeover in the country, China was 'happy' and was 'laughing' at the US. 

 In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Trump said, "Beyond embarrassment, this is something that will affect our relationship for years to come and decades to come. When China watches this, they're so happy. They are laughing at us. They are laughing."

He also remarked that under his tenure, the US had extracted billions of dollars from China, and claimed that the Xi Jinping-led country might have had a hand in the 'rigged' elections that saw the return of the Democrats to power. 

"I extracted billions and billions of dollars out of China, we had never got ten cents from China. They were happy to see a rigged election, they might have helped it along. And they are happy now. This is the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country," he added. 

Trump also spoke about the way forward for Afghanistan, saying that the Biden administration had put the country and the world in a position where thousands of citizens were trapped there. "This is not stopping, we have thousands of Americans and others over there. How will they get out? There is a Taliban ring around the airport, they say they will negotiate. But history knows that they are very brutal, they don't like to negotiate. Biden put us in this position," Donald Trump stated. 

China to exploit rare minerals in Afghanistan: Report

Even prior to the Taliban takeover, experts had warned that China had vested interests in the mineral-rich country, owing to which it had maintained a neutral stance towards the militant group. The Communist country has been looking into making inroads into Afghanistan for years given its business and geopolitical advantages. 

After the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani-led government, Russian news agency Sputnik has reported that China is now preparing to make profits out of Afghanistan's rare minerals. US House Foreign Affairs Committee Representative Michael McCaul also hinted at the same saying, "I don't know why we didn't work with the Afghans to develop that, but we never did. And now, you're going to have China going in mining these rare earth minerals." 

(With Agency Inputs)