Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Blinken, Saudi FM Discuss Afghanistan Developments over Phone


Thu 19 Aug 2021 | 12:01 PM
NaDa Mustafa

Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister (FM) Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, and US Secretary of States Antony Blinken discussed the latest developments in Afghanistan over the phone. 

 

They also reviewed the strategic ties between both countries and ways to boost them in all fields.

 

It is worth mentioning that, United Arab of Emirates (UAE) welcomed on Wednesday former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family into the country for “humanitarian consideration,” according to a statement issued by Foreign Ministry.

 

Earlier, the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan had asked Interpol to arrest Ghani, his chief of staff, and the National Security Adviser on charges of stealing public funds.

 

On Sunday, Ghani fled the country as the Taliban moved further into Kabul.

His countrymen and foreigners alike raced for the exit, signaling the end of a 20-year Western experiment aimed at remaking Afghanistan.

 

“Ghani flew out of the country,” two officials revealed on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to brief journalists. Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, later confirmed Ghani had left in an online video.

 

“He left Afghanistan in a hard time, God hold him accountable,” Abdullah said.

 

Civilians fearing that the Taliban could reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings.

 

Helicopters buzzed overhead to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy, while smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions also prepared to pull their people out.

 

In a stunning route, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces. Just days earlier, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.

 

Instead, the Taliban swiftly defeated, co-opted, or sent Afghan security forces fleeing from wide swaths of the country, even though they had some air support from the U.S. military.