Saudi Ex-Spy Chief Warns Allies' Trust in US Waning after Failure in Afghanistan

Prince Turki bin Faisal — also a former ambassador to the United States — said on Tuesday that Washington’s “failed experience in Afghanistan, and I would say semi-failed experience in Iraq, are responsible for the perceived failure or defeat, if you like, of a great power, the United States.”

As a result, he said, “doubts” about the US were “accumulating” and causing “strategic regional confusion.”

He also warned that this strategic confusion in Washington’s reliability, risks “more conflicts and crises” in West Asia

“No region in the world fears the danger of this strategic confusion more than West Asia region," he added.

Al-Faisal also warned US President Joe Biden to “weigh [the issues] carefully” before taking “any steps ... that impact this historical bond” between Washington and its allies in West Asia.

He had previously described US chaotic pullout from Afghanistan as a combination of “incompetence, carelessness, [and] bad management.” 

The US completed the chaotic withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan by the end of August, in what observers saw as a botched exit after a futile military adventure lasting 20 years.

The US-led NATO alliance invaded the South Asian country in 2001 under the pretext of ‘war on terror’, to decimate the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. None of the goals were achieved despite massive investment.

Al-Faisal also raised concern that the stockpile of weapons and military tech that had been left behind could end up being used against Saudi Arabia.