Who is afghanistans president

In a video address later on Wednesday, Mr Ghani denied fleeing and said he had left to prevent what he described as a "huge disaster". Mr Ghani also said rumours that he had travelled to the UAE with a large amount of money were "completely baseless" and "lies".

The year-old has faced intense criticism from other Afghan politicians for leaving the country. However, the US has continued to refer to "President Ghani", with the State Department saying that there has not been a formal handover of power.

In his video address, which was streamed live on Facebook, Mr Ghani said he was evacuated by his security team from the presidential palace "in a condition where I couldn't even put on my shoes".

I wanted to negotiate an inclusive government with the Taliban," he said, adding that he supported talks between the Taliban and former officials from his administration.

This is not the first time the UAE has provided a safe haven for deposed or fugitive leaders from other countries. In what some are seeing as an attempt to avoid accountability, Ghani said, "Now is not the moment for a long assessment of the events leading to my departure," adding that "I will address them in the near future.

Taliban forces had made a series of stunning advances across the country of 39 million in the wake of the Biden administration and NATO announcing a full departure of U. Amid the exodus of foreign troops, the Taliban were able to declare near complete control of the country within 10 days of seizing their first provincial capital. This was despite being vastly outnumbered by the Afghan military, which has been assisted by U. Ghani has been accused of engaging in and profiting from rampant corruption.

Rumors abounded among Afghans and analysts that the year-old took millions of dollars in cash with him when he left, and Russian state media reported the same. Ghani in his letter denied the accusations. While in the U. Two sources familiar with the June 24 meeting confirmed that the men met at the agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to discuss the upcoming transition that would need to happen as the U. There were few individuals in the room at the CIA for what would be a consequential conversation.

Two sources with knowledge of the meeting described the conversation with Burns as "very policy-centric" as the U. It was a role that tapped into Burns' decades of diplomatic experience as a former deputy secretary of state and veteran ambassador.

Burns had made it a point to travel to Afghanistan in the spring on his first overseas trip as CIA director - one kept secret by the agency. A meeting with President Ghani and his national security team was on his agenda for that April trip, as was a discussion about the broader mission of extracting Afghans who had worked with the intelligence agency over the past decades.

Concerns were already mounting about the Taliban's battleground advances and the Afghan government's ability to fend them off after the U. In a letter sent in early August to former CIA officers and obtained by CBS News, Burns cited "troubling advances by the Taliban" and explained that making Afghanistan his first stop had been intended to reflect his view that the country is important to the counterterrorism mission of the agency.

Ghani and his advisers had been worried for months. Morale within their government and the Afghan military had been deteriorating ever since the Doha agreement between the Taliban and the U. The Afghan government was not party to that deal, though it included a pledge by the U.

That deal had a "demoralizing effect" on Afghan forces and would later play a role in the melting away of those troops, as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified this past Wednesday.