Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in the UAE, says he is in talks to return

The UAE is hosting Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, who fled his country following the takeover by the Taliban.

“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,” a statement by the ministry read.

Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday, August 15.

Statement on President Ashraf Ghani.https://t.co/e5CrdYBOae

— وزارة الخارجية والتعاون الدولي (@MoFAICUAE) August 18, 2021

Ghani, who posted a video on Facebook from the UAE, said he left Afghanistan to prevent bloodshed and that he is in talks to return to his country.

“I am currently in the Emirates so that might have already stopped the bloodshed and chaos, and currently, I am in talks to return to Afghanistan,” he said.

Before becoming president in 2014, Ghani spent much of his life studying how to boost growth in poor nations.

A Fulbright Scholar with a doctorate from Columbia University, he taught at some of America’s elite academic institutions before stints at the World Bank and United Nations. Later he co-wrote Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said US troops would remain in Afghanistan until all Americans leave the country – even if it takes longer than his August 31 deadline to withdraw. He added chaos was unavoidable as troops withdrew.

US airlines will have to get special permission to fly over Afghanistan because there are no longer air-traffic controllers overseeing the skies under the new Taliban leadership, aviation regulators said late Wednesday.

Taliban fighters have set up checkpoints around Afghanistan’s international airport, raising concerns the group may prevent citizens from fleeing the country after the US-backed government collapsed.

With inputs from Bloomberg