US Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby, rejected the claims of Hamdullah Mohib, the former national security adviser under ex-president Ashraf Ghani, who in an interview with Voice of America Dari said that the Doha deal between the United States and the Taliban led to the collapse of the Afghan government.

Kirby, speaking at a press conference on Friday, said the Doha agreement had an impact on the morale of the Afghan forces, but it was not the only reason behind the collapse of the Ghani government. Kirby said the accumulation of many events and issues led to the collapse.

“Certainly, the Doha agreement sent a powerful signal to our Afghan allies, and the Afghan government that the United States was leaving, there is no question about that. It definitely had an impact on the morale of the ANDSF. We have been talking a lot over the last several months about what happened in Afghanistan, and I suspect we are gonna learn there was a lot that led to the events of mid-August,” he said. “I think we (should) be reticent at this place and time to pin it on one thing, one decision, one agreement, one meeting, one factor. I think it would be imprudent for us to do that right now.”

In the meantime, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations on Friday, said the Islamic Emirate should now show the world how it is going to act to improve the lives of Afghans. He said if the Islamic Emirate fails to act in a way that benefits the Afghan people, providing them with money will not change their behavior.

“The question should be put to the Taliban government, what are they prepared to do to show the world that they are going to operate in the fundamentally different way, and if they are not, then the provision of large amounts of money to the Taliban government should give us no confidence or comfort that is actually going to improve well-fare and the livelihood of the Afghan people,” he said.

Sullivan also said the Islamic Emirate faces problems in governing Afghanistan. “Governing is hard in any country, and it is particularly hard for an insurgent group that has come to power in this way, and I do believe that they are having fundamental practical difficulties, but they also have an ideology, and that ideology is at play here as well and I think it is a combination,” he said.