President Ghani ‘in talks to return to Afghanistan’ after fleeing to UAE

The president’s exact whereabouts remains unknown as US leaders blame him for Taliban takeover in Afghanistan

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family have been granted asylum in the UAE on the grounds of “humanitarian considerations.”

Mr Ghani fled Afghanistan last week as the Taliban approached Kabul. He posted a message on Facebook on Sunday, saying: “Today I faced a tough choice — to stand up to the Taliban who wanted to enter the Citadel or leave my country that I have devoted the last 20 years to protecting.”

He added: “If I had stayed, it would have resulted in the martyrdom of many citizens and the destruction of Kabul.”

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the president had been “welcomed” into the country but did not specify his exact whereabouts.

Speaking on a Facebook Live stream on Wednesday, Mr Ghani said he was “in talks to return to Afghanistan”.

“I am currently in the Emirates so that might have already stopped the bloodshed and chaos, and currently, I am in talks to return to Afghanistan,” the president said, according to Bloomberg.

Mr Ghani’s departure precipitated the collapse of the Afghan government and has been slammed in many quarters.

President Biden placed blame squarely on Mr Ghani for the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, saying he misled the US over Afghan forces’ ability to defend their country.

“President Ghani insisted ­Afghan forces would fight, but ­obviously he was wrong,” he said in an address from the White House on Monday.

“Afghan political leaders gave up and fled. The Afghan military collapsed, without trying to fight … American troops cannot and should not be fighting and dying in war that Afghan forces aren’t willing to fight for themselves,” Mr Biden added.

Donald Trump, who had been a fervent supporter of Mr Ghani and described him as “terrific” in 2019, also turned on the Afghan president. In an interview on Fox News, he said: “Now, I never had a lot of confidence, frankly, in Ghani. I said that openly and plainly. I thought he was a total crook.”