Biden now irks Afghans by disparaging their country as 'Godforsaken place'

Washington, Nov 6

US President Joe Biden has now irked Afghans by repeatedly disparaging their country as a "Godforsaken place", causing Kabul's Taliban rulers to claim that the American leader was doing so out of frustration, Dawn reported.

Last month, President Biden annoyed Pakistanis when he described their country as "one of the most dangerous nations in the world" that possessed nuclear weapons without any 'cohesion'.

On Friday, he targeted Afghanistan. "A lot of you have been to Afghanistan. I've been to every part of it. It's a Godforsaken place - it's a Godforsaken place," said the US president while addressing war veterans at an election rally in San Diego, Dawn reported.

He recounted his several trips to the Afghan war zone as a senator and vice president of the US, including the one in 2008 when he got stranded in the snow.

On Saturday, Chief Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid responded to Biden's remarks at a news conference in Kabul, claiming that the US leader was doing so in frustration because his party was losing the midterm elections in the US.

"Those making such remarks are doing so out of their frustration and envy for Afghanistan," he said, adding that since the Taliban takeover in August 2022, peace and stability had returned to Afghanistan and the Afghans were "going about with their daily lives normally".