Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country for the United Arab Emirates after the Taliban takeover, said on Wednesday he looked forward to returning home, and supported talks between the Taliban and top former officials.
“For now, I am in the emirate to stop the bloodshed and chaos,” he said in a video message – his first appearance since leaving the capital on Sunday. He said he had “no intention” to remain in exile.
“I am currently in talks to return to Afghanistan.”
The UAE announced earlier in the day that it was hosting Ghani “on humanitarian grounds”.
In his message posted on Facebook, Ghani said he supported talks between the Taliban and top former government officials after it emerged that Taliban members had met with former presidents Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who had failed. led the peace process.
According to the monitoring group’s site, Taliban leaders have said they have “forgiven all former government officials”.
Ghani succeeded Karzai as leader of Afghanistan in 2014.
In his message, Ghani said that he had left Kabul to stop the bloodshed and denied reports that he had taken a large sum of money with him while leaving the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Ghani was strongly criticized by former ministers for abruptly leaving the country as Taliban forces entered Kabul on Sunday.
“If I had stayed, I would have been watching the bloodshed in Kabul,” he said, adding that he had left on the advice of government officials.
More to follow.
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