Mike Pompeo has said Friday that the Taliban took the Trump Administration seriously after the killing of Iran's Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: "The Taliban knew our government was very serious because they saw our attack on Qassem Soleimani and the elimination of ISIS. "They knew that if they acted in a way that was inconsistent with American interests, we would destroy them."
President Joe Biden has been criticized for the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan that led to a quick takeover by the Taliban. The Biden administrations says that the decision to withdraw and an agreement with the Taliban was reached by the Trump administration.
Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020, ordered by former president Donald Trump, to eliminate impending terror threats, the US said at the time.