US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Joe Biden made the right strategic call to withdraw from Afghanistan three years ago and that history reflects well on that decision.

“The strategic call President Biden made, looking back three years, history has judged well and will continue to judge well,” Sullivan said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“From the point of view that, if we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying; Russia would have more leverage over us; we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face,” he said.

On the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, Sullivan said that while the investigation continues, the FBI has not found “any connection between Afghanistan and the attacker.”

“Now, the FBI will continue to look for foreign connections. Maybe we’ll find one, but what we’ve seen is proof of what President Biden said, which is that the terrorist threat has gotten more diffuse and more metastasized elsewhere, including homegrown extremists here in the United States who have committed terrorist attacks,” Sullivan said.

“Not just under President Biden, but under President Trump in his first term.”

“And that is part of why we had to move our focus from a hot war in Afghanistan to a larger counterterrorism effort across the world,” he added.

He went on to say, “the United States of America is definitively better off that we are not entering our 25th year of Americans fighting and dying in Afghanistan.”

Türkiye's 21st “Goodness Train”, carrying humanitarian aid, arrived in Afghanstan on Saturday, January 11.

Organized by Türkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), the "Goodness Train" was welcomed in Herat province by Türkiye's Herat Consul General Sinan Ilhan, Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) Deputy Secretary General Şükrü Can, Afghan Red Crescent Vice President Şahabettin Dilaver, and many Turkish and Afghan officials.

The train brought 4,000 tents, 43,000 blankets, 5,000 family kitchen sets, 10,000 food packages, as well as flour, clothing, hygiene and shelter materials, which will be distributed to needy families in various regions of the country.

According to a statement issued by Türkiye's Embassy in Kabul on X, the aid sent in also included medicine and other items to help the Afghan people cope with the harsh winter conditions.

"With the Goodness Train trips, which symbolize the Turkish people's support for the Afghan people, Türkiye will continue to stand by Afghanistan, as it always has, whenever needed," the statement read.

The train departed from Ankara for Afghanistan on December 20.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with Qatar will launch the Polio Legacy Challenge to help eradicate the disease in Afghanistan, a top official of the organisation told Gulf Times.

According to Chris Elias, the president of the Global Development Division at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the campaign will be done in conjunction with the Islamic Development Bank, along with Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia. 

“With our work on polio eradication, we are actually launching something called the Polio Legacy Challenge with the Islamic Development Bank. 

“Gates Foundation and the governments of Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia will provide some funding through the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund to support the primary healthcare system in Afghanistan,” Elias said. 

“This is a new initiative that is just beginning now. We are basically working with the countries that have indicated their interest in doing it and in the process of finalising the agreements with the Islamic Development Bank. We hope to launch it in early 2025,” he explained.

“We will have a governing body in which all of the contributors will participate. The funds will be administered through the Islamic Development Bank for support of the primary health care system in Afghanistan,” continued the official.

Elias noted that currently he chairs the board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, and has been working with Qatar on some of the regional initiatives to help finalise the job of polio eradication.

“We have seen the wild polio virus in the two endemic countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Under the auspices of the World Health Organisation, the regional subcommittee on polio eradication is co-chaired by Qatar and UAE. 

“The ministers of health of the Middle East region have actually been very helpful in encouraging both Pakistan and Afghanistan to do what is necessary for the final elimination of polio virus. So again, Qatar has been very helpful in this regard.”

Polio is still present in Afghanistan, with the wild poliovirus endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2024, Afghanistan reported 23 cases. In 2022, Afghanistan reported two cases, and five during 2023.