Free Republic

“That’s it. It’s over.” Those are the words attributed to a U.S. official as Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, reportedly for Tajikistan, Sunday. President Ghani's departure as the Taliban entered Kabul overnight follows a number of other government officials who were spotted at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul awaiting flights out of their country. Ghani's decision to flee the country was followed by reports that the Taliban will move deeper into Kabul as fighters capture the Afghan capital, completing a mission that US intel predicted as recently as this week would take at least one month. The...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Saturday as the security situation continues to deteriorate in the country. In a statement released by the State Department, the two “discussed the urgency of ongoing diplomatic and political efforts to reduce the violence” in Afghanistan and Blinken “emphasized the United States’ commitment to a strong diplomatic and security relationship with the Government of Afghanistan and our continuing support for the people of Afghanistan.”

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani delivered a televised address on Saturday in a bid to rally troops defending Kabul as the Taliban tightened their territorial stranglehold around the capital and US Marines returned to oversee emergency evacuations. Advertising Ghani said he was ordering the Afghan military to remobilise as they seek to defend the capital from the Taliban after the insurgents’ astonishing blitz through Afghanistan over the past week. “In the current situation, the remobilisation of our security and defence forces is our top priority, and serious steps are being taken in this regard,” he said. The focus must also be...

Bonn - Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Germany late on Sunday under tight security for a conference aimed at returning Afghanistan's pressing problems to the international spotlight. Monday's meeting, which marks the anniversary of an historic deal creating a post-conflict government for Afghanistan, will also measure progress made since last year's fall of the radical Islamic Taliban regime, which harboured the al-Qaeda network. Karzai will attend the one-day event in Petersberg, near Bonn, along with other senior Afghan leaders. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana...