Biden aired Johnson for 36 hours- but did the PM try Snapchat?
According to recent reports, US President Joe Biden dodged Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s calls for 36 hours between Monday and Tuesday.
Johnson tried to reach Biden on Monday morning, UK time but wasn’t able to get him on the phone until 10pm Tuesday (5pm Washington time), according to The Daily Telegraph.
Human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments. pic.twitter.com/w2jMtgzisE
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 18, 2021
Though the White House has made no official comment as of yet, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that the president had “not yet spoken with any other world leaders”.
“Myself, Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken, several other senior members of the team have been engaged on a regular basis with foreign counterparts, and we intend to do so in the coming days,” he added.
The British PM allegedly urged the President not to throw away “gains made in Afghanistan,” despite Biden essentially washing his hands of the situation on Monday, saying: “ [the] mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building.”
A White House readout of the call states that Biden and Johnson “discussed the need for continued close coordination among allies and democratic partners on Afghanistan policy going forward” and agreed to hold a virtual meeting with other leaders of the G7 nations next week.
The answer is clear: We cannot continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. pic.twitter.com/AA9Fc6ZFXi
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 17, 2021
Speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the president defended his decision to withdraw all remaining US troops from Afghanistan.
In the interview, he said: “We’re going to go back in hindsight but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing — I don’t know how that happens.”
Related links:
Biden’s statement ‘washing hands’ of Afghanistan labelled ‘one of most shameful in US history’
Trump demands Biden resign ‘in disgrace’ over Taliban’s Afghanistan takeover
12 deaths at Kabul airport confirmed as Taliban urges desperate Afghans to return home
