Ghani instructed BBC’s Radio 4 “Today” program that his nationwide safety adviser knowledgeable him he should go away and that the departure was “actually sudden,” including that it was “solely after we took off, it grew to become clear that we have been leaving” Afghanistan.
“On the morning of that day, I had no inkling that by late afternoon, I can be leaving,” Ghani recounted through the interview with former UK Chief of Defense Staff General Nick Carter, broadcast on Thursday. Carter was guest-editing that version of the BBC radio program.
According to Ghani, the Afghan authorities have been initially knowledgeable that the Taliban fighters wouldn’t be getting into Kabul, however “two hours later, this was not the case.”
He was recounting the chaotic August weekend by which Taliban seized management of the nation’s capital at lightning velocity. Analysts had predicted Kabul wouldn’t be breached for weeks or months regardless of the militants’ advances elsewhere in Afghanistan, however they in the end took energy in a matter of hours.Later that month, a former senior official of Ghani detailed a vivid image of the final weeks of his authorities, together with how the previous President and his advisers have been shocked by the velocity of the Taliban’s advance. Ghani was removed from ready for the Taliban’s arrival on the outskirts of Kabul and fled with solely the garments he was carrying, the previous official instructed CNN.
Ghani instructed the BBC that he instructed a number of colleagues and his spouse to flee the town whereas he waited for a automotive to take him to the Ministry of Defense. After the automobile failed to look, National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and the pinnacle of the Afghan President Protective Service (PPS) got here to seek out him.
“They mentioned PPS has collapsed. If I take a stand, they’ll all be killed, and they won’t be able to defending me,” he instructed the BBC.
Mohib, who was “actually terrified,” didn’t give him “greater than two minutes” to arrange to depart, Ghani mentioned. Their preliminary plan to journey to Khost had fallen by way of after the town was taken, which means Ghani didn’t know the place they have been headed when departing.
“Only after we took off did it change into clear that we have been leaving,” he mentioned.
Ghani, who has been residing within the United Arab Emirates, refuted allegations that he introduced cash with him abroad, saying he needed to “categorically state” that he “didn’t take any cash overseas.”
He added that the “helicopters in our first vacation spot have been obtainable for everyone to go looking,” welcoming the prospect of an inquiry by US Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko.
“I’d like an inquiry and as I steered earlier, as quickly as these allegations have been raised by the United Nations, or an investigative agency, my fashion of life is understood to everybody. What would I do with cash? This is an accusation, notably coming within the first half from Russia.”
The former President partially attributed the nation’s downfall to his determination to belief “in our worldwide partnership.”
“All of us made an enormous mistake in assuming that the endurance of the worldwide group would final,” Ghani remarked.
Although Afghans “rightly blame” him for the autumn of their nation, Ghani maintained that he has been “made a scapegoat” and had his life work “destroyed.” All events must “arrive at a pathway for true nationwide reconciliation in autonomy and accountability to one another,” he concluded.