Afghanistan isn’t on his list. Neither is Saudi Arabia, as mentioned here. Plus Pakistan. Those are from “news” sites.
Obviously everything is way more complicated than the whole, “We’re not letting terrorists come here. and. This is for our protection” (Summary of Something).
Covert means that we are not privy. Not like transparency with the American people is a good strategy. Surely the POTUS needs to keep some of his agendas behind the scenes. That’s the point.
Maybe he wanted to do more and had barriers. Maybe anything. These are speculations. I don’t know anything except that anything is possible, almost anything B”H.