Warnings that Afghanistan would become a launching pad for terrorist attacks around the world after the withdrawal of U.S. troops turned out to be wrong, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said Wednesday.

“The dire predictions have not come to pass,” he said at a national security conference in Rockville, Maryland, NBC News reported.

Cohen said that Washington has shifted its national security priorities in recent years to focus on China and Russia, but said that combating terrorism remains a mission at which the country’s intelligence agencies cannot afford to fail.

“We continue to invest in it, we’re continuing to deploy resources,” Cohen said.

He said that Daesh, including its branch Khorasan, remains the top terrorist threat.

Cohen cited the U.S. operation that killed Al Qaeda’s chief, Ayman Zawahiri, in a safe house in Kabul in 2022 as an example of a counterterrorism success. Although the Islamic Emirate has not confirmed his death.

He also said that the CIA has kept in communication with the IEA, which now rules Afghanistan, reminding it of its commitment to ensure the country does not again become a staging ground for terrorist attacks abroad.

“We have been engaging with them, all throughout this period, in various ways, as they have taken on the effort to combat both Al Qaeda and ISIS-K,” Cohen said, 

“And so this isn’t a ‘mission accomplished’ sort of thing. But it is worth noting that in Afghanistan today, the dire predictions have not come to pass,” he said.

This comes as Republican lawmakers have blasted the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S. exit and argued that Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for terrorist groups.

A United Nations report in July said that foreign governments are increasingly concerned about terrorist threats from Afghanistan, including Daesh Khorasan.

The Islamic Emirate, however, has denied the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan and said it will not allow Afghan soil to be used against any other country.