The United States had hoped that then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani would help usher in an “inclusive” Taliban government, but he fled instead.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed there was a plan in place in mid-August in which Ghani would give up power to the Taliban under the conditions that the new regime would be more inclusive than anticipated.
When asked on Sunday by CBS News’s Margaret Brennan about whether there was more he could’ve done to prevent the collapse of the Ghani government, Blinken said he spoke with the former president “on a Saturday night, pressing him to make sure he was ready to agree with the plan we were trying to put into effect.”
The secretary noted that the plan was for Ghani “to do a transfer of power to a new government that would have been led by the Taliban but been inclusive and included all aspects of Afghan society.”
Blinken claimed that Ghani said he was “ready to fight to the death” to ensure it happened, but he instead fled Afghanistan the next day, leaving the Taliban to create their temporary government, which includes multiple people recognized to be terrorists by the U.S.
The Office of the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction is investigating the allegations that Ghani fled with millions of dollars.
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With the Taliban as the governing body, there were concerns that the rights that Afghan women had obtained in recent years would be stripped.
Last week, the U.S. announced $144 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, and Blinken vowed to support “vigorously” all people in “vulnerable situations, including, but not limited to, women, children, journalists, human rights defenders, persons with disabilities, LGBTQI+ individuals, and members of minority groups.”
