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UAE confirms hosting Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani, his family

Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani looks on while attending a Joint Coordination and Monitoring Board meeting (JCMB) at the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on July 28, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) says Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, who fled his country before the Taliban militants installed themselves in Kabul on August 15, is now in the Persian Gulf Arab state.

“The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation can confirm that the UAE has welcomed President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country on humanitarian grounds,” the ministry said in a brief statement on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, the 72-year-old Ghani said the “Taliban have won” and that he escaped to avoid a “flood of bloodshed.”

His whereabouts were unknown until Wednesday and there were speculations that he had fled to Oman, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, or Lebanon, where his wife comes from.

After US President Joe Biden ordered a hasty withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan by September 1, the Taliban militants rapidly overran major cities.

Following the Taliban’s takeover, thousands of Afghan civilians swarmed the Kabul airport to take evacuation flights.

The militant group says it assures the civilians and the international community that the transition period will be peaceful.

In their first official news briefing since their lightning seizure of Kabul, the Taliban said on Tuesday that it wanted peaceful ties with other countries and vowed to respect women’s rights.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that it appeared from the Taliban's initial statements and actions that Afghanistan's internal problems could be fixed through all-inclusive dialogue.

The ministry said in a statement that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had discussed the situation in Afghanistan with his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi during a phone call.

In 2001, the US-led invasion of Afghanistan removed the Taliban from power. The security situation in the country, however, deteriorated through the years.


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