Pompeo calls Afghan ex-Prez 'total fraud, hurdle in peace talks'

PTI

Washington, January 29

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.

Ghani in line of fire

Ashraf Ghani was solely focused on his own desire to stay in power and a big hurdle in peace talks with the Taliban. Mike Pompeo, Former US Secretary of state

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 US completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31, ending its 20-year-old military presence in the war-torn 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 his own desire to stay in power,” Pompeo writes in his book that hit the bookstores last week.

“Never once did I sense that he was prepared to take a risk for his country that might imperil his power. This disgusted me,” he writes in the book.