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Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghanistan President who fled the country when the Taliban grabbed power in Kabul, was a total fraud solely focused on his own desire to stay in power and a big hurdle in any peace talks, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said. In his book titled 'Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,' Pompeo claims that both Ghani and Afghanistan's former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah were involved in corruption at the highest levels that limited the US' ability to successfully exit the war-torn country in August 2021. The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31, ending its 20-year-old military presence in the country. As negotiations accelerated, Ghani was always a problem. I met scores of world leaders, and he was my least favourite. That's saying a lot when you have Kim (Jong-un), Xi (Jinping), and (Vladimir) Putin in the mix. Yet Ghani was a total fraud who had wasted American lives and was focused solely on hi
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday defended his decision to flee Kabul in the face of the Taliban advance, describing it as the only way to prevent bloodshed. He also denied claims by his country's ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen millions of dollars from state funds. Ghani posted a video on his Facebok page late on Wednesday, confirming that he was in the United Arab Emirates. He thanked Afghan security forces in his message, but also said that the failure of the peace process led to the Taliban snatching power. He also indirectly tried to quash an accusation by Afghanistan's ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen USD 169 million from state funds. He claimed that he was "forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing". "Accusations were charged in these days that money was transferred, these accusations are fully baseless," he said. Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday just as the Taliban approached Kabu