Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Newsmax that if the Taliban take over Afghanistan, the terrorist group ISIS-K will rise up alongside them. In addition to that, national security adviser Jake Sullivan says the U.S. could provide indirect aid to the Taliban.
Appearing Tuesday on "Eric Bolling: The Balance," Banks said Gen. Scott Miller, who commanded NATO's Resolute Support Mission and U.S. forces in Afghanistan from September 2018 to July 2021, told him that "when [he] visited there that if a situation ever came like this one where the Taliban takes over the country, then ISIS-K would rise up again in Afghanistan and pose a direct threat to the homeland, to the United States of America.
''That's what they want,'' Banks continued. ''They don't want terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. ISIS-K wants terrorist attacks against the United States of America."
Sullivan, who spoke with ''Good Morning America'' on Tuesday, said the U.S. could provide financial aid to the Taliban, dependent upon their commitment not to let Afghanistan be a base for terrorists to attack the U.S. or other countries.
"When it comes to our economic and development assistance relationship with the Taliban, that will be about the Taliban's actions," Sullivan said. "It will be about whether they follow through on their commitments.
''Their commitments to safe passage for Americans and Afghan allies,'' he said. ''Their commitment to not allow Afghanistan to be a base from which terrorists can attack the United States or any other country. Their commitments with respect to upholding their international obligations. It's going to be up to them. And we will wait and see by their actions."
Sullivan prefaced that the aid would go to the Afghan people, not the Taliban, via nongovernmental organizations.
Banks condemned Sullivan's statement, saying that President Joe Biden ''is already the best friend the Taliban has ever had. To suggest that we might actually reward them financially on top of handing over the keys" to the Afghan government "is something I never thought I would hear come out of the mouth of any administration official, Republican or Democrat."
"No matter who the president is, I never thought we would have a president, a commander in chief ... willing to aid and abet our enemy, and that's exactly what this administration is doing — not to mention we still have hundreds of Americans who are stuck in Afghanistan behind enemy lines that this president left behind."
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