Afghanistan’s former President has defended his decision to flee the country as the Taliban closed in earlier this year, saying he did it to prevent the destruction of Kabul.
The Taliban seized power in August after taking control of the capital.
Ashraf Ghani revealed that when he woke up on August 15 he had “no inkling” it would be his last day in Afghanistan.
It was only when his plane left Kabul that he realised he was going, Ghani said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
He was heavily criticised and accused of abandoning the country at the time. He is now in the United Arab Emirates.
Ghani made the comments in conversation with Gen Sir Nick Carter, the UK’s former Chief of the Defence Staff, who was guest-editing the Today program on Thursday.
The car never came. Instead, the national security advisor returned, along with the “terrified” chief of Presidential security, and told Ghani they would “all be killed” if he took a stand.
“He did not give me more than two minutes,” Ghani said. “My instructions had been to prepare for departure for [the city of] Khost. He told me that Khost had fallen and so had Jalalabad.
“I did not know where we will go. Only when we took off, it became clear that we were leaving [Afghanistan]. So this really was sudden.”
In the wake of his departure, Ghani was roundly criticised by many in Afghanistan including his Vice-President Amrullah Saleh, who called it “disgraceful”. - BBC