By Yashwant Raj Washington August 14, : Former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has broken his silence and revealed that he left the country in August due to the fact that he wanted to avoid giving the Taliban an opportunity to “humiliate” another former President, and he strongly denied reports of he had taken millions of dollars with the rest of his money.
Ghani is in Abu Dhabi and spoke to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria from Abu Dhabi in an interview that was broadcast on Sunday.
He expressed no bitterness about being left out by the United States under President Joe Biden and that resulted in his exile and then the back of the Taliban.
But Ghani has blasted the Donald Trump administration for, one, snatching up an Afghan-owned peace initiative; two, preventing the Afghan government out of the Doha peace talks; and three forcing on the Afghan government’s terms of reference that were negotiated by the US with the Taliban.
Ghani quit Afghanistan in August 15 2021, which was the day that Taliban fighters entered Kabul and the United States began evacuating its diplomats from its Embassy.
The Taliban returned to the capital two decades after having been evicted by the US-led international force and also the entire country with no fight.
Their return was recorded in photos of its fighters in the palace of the president.
Ghani had no intention of going away.
However, he declared it was impossible to remain and “defend” the city from the presidential palace, as the security guards “melted away” and put on civilian attire and even the minister of defense had gone.
He was ready to join the ministry of defense in order to be the leader of the fight but he was unable to.He has previously spoken of this to the BBC but not in the same detail.
“The reason I resigned was that I didn’t wish to offer the Taliban and their supporters the pleasure of once more discrediting the Afghan President and forcing him to give up his credibility of the Afghan government,” Ghani said in an elaborate answer to a question concerning his resignation.
Ghani did not mention anyone however he could be referring to the incident in 1996 between the Taliban and another former Afghan President, Mohammad Najibullah.
Taliban fighters had taken the man from the UN compound in Kabul where he was staying since leaving office in 1992, after he had failed to leave for India — and tortured and castrated them before hanging the man.The body was then dragged through the streets of Kabul and tied to the back of a truck.
“I’ve never been scared.You’ve seen many times that rockets land around me, but I’ve never moved.It was an unplanned decision due to the fact that they had arrived in Kabul as well as the US Embassy was been evacuated.(been) evacuated.” Ghani told Zakaria.
The US evacuation was chaotic even though it was months in preparation.The comparisons are drawn to the tragic US leaving Saigon which ended the Vietnam War in April 1975.
“Now you’re aware of reports that you left with $169 million in cash,” Zakaria said, asking Ghani to provide a response.
The former President rebuffed the report, citing a 2022 report issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).It concluded that, while the people who were with Ghani in the helicopters leaving Kabul carried money individually, “This amount of cash ($169 million) would be extremely difficult to hide.It’s quite large in terms of weight and bulk $169 million in hundred dollar bills stacking end-to-end and arranged in an entire block 7.5 feet long and 3 feet wide and 3 feet high.
“In other terms it’s a bit larger than an American three-seater sofa.
The block would have weighed 3,722 pounds or almost two tonnes.The Mi-17 helicopters that the group flew on did not come with separate cargo hold.Thus the entirety of the cargo should be clearly visible in the cabin along with the passengers.”
Ghani stated that he left in just his clothesone Afghan dress with an overcoat and shoes.He was not carrying the book that, he said, is something that people who know him would expect him to carry on a plane.
In response to questions about the comparisons with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who in the in the face of Russian invading forces in February, chose to remain and take on the charge instead of fleeing the country, the former Afghan President highlighted several important divergences in terms of the time, context and the situation.
“Well the comparison should be drawn between 2014, the year that I was elected President, and not 2021.We’ve endured a war for 42 years.Our pain was very deep.Our people were exhausted of killings.
They also wanted to stop the violence,” Ghani said.
He stated, “Zelensky had the advantage of being warned of the Russian invasion by the US and, in particular, the CIA.We were not given any paper of newspaper by our allies.The US itself was not aware of the advance of the Taliban forces.American defense and intelligence were confident that Kabul could stand firm for months, but they were caught off guard by the rapid advance of the Taliban.”
Then, Ghani pointed to the incredible help Zelensky is receiving from the US and its allies.The sum of billions of dollars of military assistance has been flowed into Ukraine since then, along with an unimaginable amount of diplomatic support.
Afghanistan received similar support from the entire world after being invaded by Soviet Union in 1979.
However, in 2021, there was not a single supporter until it became evident that the decision of President Biden to quit Afghanistan was irrevocable, Ghani said.
“People fundamentally ask whether you’re willing to continue fighting another time of civil war when will it end? What’s the end goal?” Ghani answered rhetorically with questions.
yashwant/arm
