Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani defends his decision to escape, says he is a scapegoat

American officers, from President Biden down, in addition to different leaders of the fallen Afghan republic, have pointed to Mr. Ghani’s flight on Aug. 15 as the rationale the Afghan state instantly collapsed and diplomatic efforts for a peaceable transition imploded.

Mr. Ghani broke greater than 4 months of silence in an interview aired on Thursday by the British Broadcasting Corp. He was interviewed not by a workers BBC journalist however by Gen. Nick Carter, the not too long ago retired head of the British armed forces. Gen. Carter dealt extensively with Mr. Ghani all through his navy profession, which included a stint as deputy commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. He was a visitor editor on the flagship BBC morning radio present.

Within the interview, Mr. Ghani blamed the U.S. for the collapse in Afghanistan, saying that his authorities was minimize out of negotiations with the Taliban. “They erased us,” he mentioned. He added that he ought to have adopted the instance of former President Hamid Karzai in refusing to cooperate so intently with Washington.

“I trusted in our worldwide partnership,” mentioned Mr. Ghani, “as an alternative of confronting constantly like my predecessor.”

Within the weeks earlier than the autumn of Kabul, Mr. Ghani vowed repeatedly that he was prepared to die defending his nation. Within the BBC interview, he mentioned that his safety workforce informed him that if he took a stand, they’d all be killed.

“On the morning of that day, I had no inkling that by late afternoon, I might be leaving,” Mr. Ghani mentioned. “I needed to sacrifice myself to be able to save Kabul.”

Mr. Ghani mentioned that whilst he boarded a helicopter out of Kabul on Aug. 15, he thought he would fly to the japanese metropolis of Khost, apparently unaware that it had already fallen to the Taliban. Khost was the bottom of an anti-Taliban safety power educated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Company. He went as an alternative to Uzbekistan and from there to the United Arab Emirates, the place he stays. “I didn’t know the place we’d go,” mentioned Mr. Ghani.

On the time, two totally different factions of the Taliban have been closing in on Kabul. Mr. Ghani mentioned he feared a “huge battle” between them would destroy the town—which might have been a repeat of the civil warfare between the mujahedeen factions that fought over the Afghan capital within the early Nineties. There was no open battle between Taliban factions previously 4 months.

Afghanistan, now solely below the management of the Taliban, is struggling an financial meltdown, partly as a result of Mr. Ghani’s departure scuttled plans for a negotiated transition of energy. The brand new Taliban administration has discovered itself below U.S. sanctions, with over $9 billion in Afghan central-bank belongings frozen. Greater than half the inhabitants is going through hunger, in accordance with the United Nations.

Mr. Ghani’s interview unleashed a deluge of anger from Afghans on social media. Haroun Rahimi, previously a regulation professor on the now defunct American College of Afghanistan, referred to as Mr. Ghani and his shut aides “treasonous cowards.” Abdullah Khenjani, a former deputy minister, referred to as the interview an insult to the miseries of the Afghan individuals.

Within the BBC interview, Mr. Ghani blamed veteran American diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the 2020 Doha settlement with the Taliban, for the Afghan republic’s collapse. “Course of-wide, outcome-wise, the duty has to obviously relaxation” with Mr. Khalilzad’s workforce, he mentioned. “It turned an American, not an Afghan, subject….My life’s work has been destroyed, my values have been trampled on and I’ve been made a scapegoat.”

Mr. Ghani additionally dismissed as a Russian disinformation marketing campaign the allegations that he fled Afghanistan with a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars}. He mentioned he welcomed a probe by John Sopko, the U.S. particular inspector normal for Afghanistan, into these accusations, saying he needed the U.N. or a personal investigator to conduct an inquiry.

“I might be delighted to have any type of investigation, together with taking a lie-detector check,” mentioned Mr. Ghani, including that riches weren’t consistent with his way of life, so “What would I do with the cash?”

On the identical BBC present, Mr. Khalilzad mentioned that culpability for the Taliban takeover was “initially, a failure of the Afghan management,” with Mr. Ghani operating away and navy leaders refusing to struggle.

Mr. Khalilzad additionally mentioned that it’s an achievement in its personal proper that the warfare in Afghanistan, which was inflicting a whole bunch of deaths daily, is now over. “I’m happy that the killing fields of Afghanistan are not any extra,” he mentioned.

This story has been printed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content