Connect with us

International

Former Afghan President Claims He “Didn’t Know” He Was Fleeing Country

Published

on

Ashraf Ghani
Ashraf Ghani

Former President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani claims he did not know he was leaving the country when his security team told him to leave Kabul as the Taliban closed in on the city in August.

Ghani made the claim in an interview with the BBC, his first interview since fleeing Kabul, saying that he had “no inkling” the morning of Aug. 15 that he would be leaving the country.

In the weeks before the fall of Kabul, Ghani promised repeatedly that he was willing to die for his country. However, according to the BBC, Ghani fled after his security team told him they would “all be killed” if he remained in Kabul, and that he ran away with the intention of flying to Khost, apparently unaware that the city had fallen to the Taliban. Ghani instead went to Uzbekistan and then the United Arab Emirates, where he has remained.

“He did not give me more than two minutes,” Ghani told the BBC. “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,” Ghani claimed.
As the BBC noted, after fleeing Afghanistan, “Ghani was roundly criticized by many in Afghanistan including his vice-president Amrullah Saleh, who called it ‘disgraceful.’”

In the interview, Ghani also blamed the United States for the fall of his country, claiming that his government was not involved in negotiations with the Taliban.
Ghani also denied allegations that he left the country with millions of dollars in cash, which is currently being investigated by the United States.

“The US government’s inspector general in charge of investigating misuse of aid money in Afghanistan says he’s ‘looking into’ claims that former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his subordinates stole millions of dollars before fleeing,” the New York Post reported. “Ghani is accused of stealing $169 million when he left Afghanistan as the Taliban neared Kabul. His abrupt departure allowed the radical group to take the Afghan capital two weeks before the chaotic final US troop pullout.”

Continue Reading
1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. vinnie

    January 1, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    Almost as believable as the 2020 election if only We the People knew where the money disappeared to like the money De Blasio’s magician wife made disappear and unable to account for!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

International

Iran and Iraq sign controversial five-year contract to continue export of natural gas

Published

on

GettyImages 1238706937 scaled

Despite the Biden administration having ‘strongly suggested’ that Iraqis find other ways solve their production problems, they have signed a new deal with Iran. Iraq’s ministry of electricity announced a finalized agreement on Wednesday, of which the Iran regime has signed a five-year contract to continue the export of natural gas for use in Iraq’s power generating plants.

Iraq will import up to 50 million cubic meters per day of the vital fuel; prior, Iraq had been procuring approximately half of that amount from Iranian suppliers, according to The Foreign Desk News.

The outlet notes this relationship between American adversaries has often brought criticism from Washington because the imports and their payments are subject to U.S. sanctions. The government in Baghdad must ask for waivers from the State Department to complete their purchases.

The Foreign Desk News goes on to explain:

Iran’s national gas company has been provisioning their neighbor for the last 10 years, as Iraq has long suffered domestic production problems due to corruption and inadequate infrastructure.

Most of the natural gas that Iraq imports is used to produce power for an unstable and maintenance-prone electrical grid. Service outages are common amid the country’s growing consumption and many residents frequently must rely on private generators during times of disruption.

Including the electricity that Iraq directly purchases from Iran, the Islamic republic is reported to be responsible for supplying nearly a quarter of the country’s total power use.

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending