Risk to the US of another 9/11 is very real, says former US NSA John Bolton

Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton said, `The risk to the US of another 9/11 is very real.` Bolton added that `there are already reports of thousands of foreign fighters coming back to Afghanistan.`

New Delhi: Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton on Friday (September 24, 2021) said that the Taliban “remains a terrorist group" even though they may have succeeded in overthrowing the government in Afghanistan.

"Where I don't think there will be support, and it begins to be a mistake to give the impression that we are prepared to accept Taliban's control as completely established and something acceptable," asserted Bolton. 

The former US National Security Advisor also said that China and Russia are acting as "surrogates" for the Taliban. He pointed out that to "concede legitimacy" to the Taliban government was a big mistake on the part of the US government. 

In an interview with WION, Bolton said, "The risk to the US of another 9/11 is very real." Bolton added that "there are already reports of thousands of foreign fighters coming back to Afghanistan."

He also said that he believes that from the US perspective there would be broad support to allow American citizens to leave Afghanistan, and other citizens, including those who assisted NATO including many Afghans and their families who helped America in the past 20 years.

While answering another question on the ISIS-K threat, Bolton commented that even though both are adversaries right now, as the ISIS-K follow a harder line compared to the Taliban, that could "change in a heartbeat".

Additionally, the former US National Security Advisor also said ISIS-K, Al Qaeda including other groups that America is unaware about, are establishing sanctuaries in conflict-hit Afghanistan and planning attacks on America. He added that the threat to America and its allies is "very, very real".

Bolton called AUKUS a "new idea", adding that this will promote a lot of "different combinations" to meet the Chinese threat. "A good example is the first in-person meeting of Quad leaders hosted by President Biden to meet PM Modi, Japanese PM Suga and PM Morrison," he said.

Bolton also asserted that Quad is an example of growing relations between the United States and India.

"India has a land border with China and there have been incidences along the LAC," he said.

On possible differences between the US and India, Bolton said during the cold war India purchased a lot of weapons from Russia, conceding that the "legacy system that India has is incompatible with US and NATO," he said

"There has to be a transformation in India's weapon's strategy, it does not need to be all US, it could be France, UK and others who are complaint with NATO," Bolton asserted.