Ashraf Ghani Interview With CNN. Complete Transcript.

Ashraf Ghani Interview With CNN. Complete Transcript & Translation.

Ex Afghan President Was Interviewed By Fareed Of CNN On 14 August 2022.

Interviewer Fareed Asks Ghani.

People around the world are wondering why you decided to leave in, May 2021 Just months earlier, you gave an interview to Der Spiegel in which you said, and I'm now going to quote you, " no power in the world could persuade me to get on plane and leave this country. It is a country I love, and I will die defending. " But you did get on a plane and leave the country. Why?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

I did get on a plane because it became impossible to defend it from the presidential ground. All the presidential protection force melted and put on civilian clothes. The Minister of Defense had left.

I was ready to go to the Minister of Defense because he had called me. That cabo could not be defended, and I said, I'm going to come to the ministry. The ministry was empty. He was on a plane. I was the last to leave.

And the reason I left was because I did not want to give the Taliban and their supporters the pleasure of, yet again, humiliating enough, one president and making him sign over the legitimacy of the government. I've never been afraid. You've seen repeatedly rockets have come, landed around me, and I have not moved but to surrender and be humiliated. And it was a split second decision because they had entered Kabul and the US embassy had already evacuated the embassy at 9.00

Interviewer.

One of the things in the report says that you and your national security adviser, and more your national security adviser, began to worry that the presidential Guard itself would assassinate you. Were you not sure of the loyalties, even of your own personal presidential guard?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

There was firing in the morning when I was in a meeting. I don't know who started firing, but it was very close, so they asked me to go inside. Cooks in the presidency were found with instructions. I think one was being offered $100,000 to poison me. So it is an environment that one needs to understand.

CNN TV Interviewer.

You get into a helicopter, and when you take off, where do you think you're going?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

I thought I was going to the airport. It took off northwards. So after 15 or 20 minutes, I realized that you're not going to the airport as the national security adviser. And he said the airport was not safe.

And on the plane, a decision was made then on the helicopter to go to Pakistan. No preparation had been made anywhere else, as all the documentation shows, because I had no plans of leaving.

CNN TV Interviewer.

You didn't have your passport with you?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

No.

CNN TV Interviewer.

You didn't have your personal belongings with you?

Ashraf Ghan, Ex President Reply.

Nothing. I was wearing a front clothes with a waistcoat and a pair of shoes, and that was it. I didn't even have a book. Or people who know me practically never fly without a book, because that's when I concentrate and rent and nothing else.

CNN TV Interviewer.

Now, you know, there are these rumors that you left with $169,000,000 of cash. What is your response?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

Well, Cigar has categorically proven that I did not leave with any money. This is part of a disinformation campaign. You have, among others, investigated my past. And also if you look at Ambassador Bolton's memoirs, president Trump used to confuse me with President Karzai and had alleged that I own property outside and they investigated and found nothing.

I've lived an honorable life in a self made man and did not need. I declared all my assets in Cigar now and it's detailed report has shown that there was no money on the helicopter for viewers.

CNN TV Interviewer.

Let me clarify. This is the Special Inspector General's report. It does say that it would have been physically impossible for you to have taken the money. There were no all eyewitness accounts say you did not. So my question to you is the Russian embassy put out this number and this allegation. Why?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

You'll have to ask them.

CNN TV Interviewer.

Why do you think this rumor got going? It's been so widespread. The sense that you took this money, what do you think accounts for it?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

A blame game, a full guy and if you cannot kill the man, you attempt to kill his character. My integrity has been known. I lived a very simple life. Money shows signs.

There have been massive investigation by journalists of other countries and leaders and they've been able to I challenged the entire investigative journalist community to come with any evidence of any wrongdoing or any interest on my part in accumulation of money. That is not what I went back to Afghanistan for. That's not why I put 16 hours days and that's not why I represented my country with honor and dignity.

There was enormous anger and trauma in our country. We are a traumatized people and trauma produces fear. And fear is directed in order to prevent our national unity in coming together.

CNN TV Interviewer.

Many people make the analogy between you and President Zelensky and they say Zelensky stayed and rallied his country and you left. What do you think of that comparison?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

Well, the comparison should be made between 2014 when I became President and not 2021. We have been fighting for 42 years. Our trauma was deep, our people were tired of killing and our people wanted an end to the bloodsheding.

President Zelensky was informed in detail by the CIA of the forthcoming Russian invasion. We were not offered a single piece of paper by our allies.

The other comparison again is Europe stood the whole NATO, United States, Australia, other countries rallied to Ukraine, but that is similar to the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. Then again, a lot of people stood with us and appreciated and increased the scale. But this was a time in 2021 when support for staying in Afghanistan after President Biden's decision had gone, it was an irreversible decision and people fundamentally asking if you are going to fight another round of civil war, what's the end? What's the conclusion?

CNN TV Interviewer.

Do you feel betrayed by the Americans?

Ex Afghan President Mr. Ashraf Ghani Reply.

I don't use those types of words because our trauma or pain need not to go to the direction of betrayal or blame. We need to focus on what is now in front of us. We need to draw lessons from the past and deal with the present. Our country is in dire condition.

I do not have the luxury to engage in blaming or sense of betrayal. Superpowers big powers decide on the base of their national interest. What I hope is that they've considered the implications of those.

CNN TV Interviewer.

You think that Trump accord with the Taliban was a disaster?