host: Last August the Taliban
swept into kabul.
Afghanistan national security
forces fell apart in the
government dissolved.
The president fled kabul in a
helicopter and he is in the
United Arab Emirates and he
spoke with Nick schifrin
yesterday.
Reporter: It has been one years
since the Taliban took over
Afghanistan amid the government
collapse and the chaotic U.S.
Withdrawal.
To get some perspective return
to the former president of
Afghanistan.
Mr. President, thank you very
much and welcome back to the
"Newshour."
Let's start with your departure.
Last may you said, I will not
abandon my people, my forces and
I'm willing to die for my
country.
Free months later on August 15
you left and you said you left
because you did not want to give
the Taliban the pleasure of
humiliating and Afghan
president.
Was avoiding humiliation worth
abandoning the country?
>> I firmly committed to
defending my people, our armed
forces.
At the last minute, I could not.
I left as the last person in the
chain of command because our
forces could no longer sustain.
I had no one to fight with me.
It was not the situation where
sacrificing myself would have
saved the republic.
On the country -- on the
contrary, it would have created
another trauma.
Reporter: You just said that you
were one of the last to leave
the country but in fact multiple
senior officials in the
government remained at the
moment that you left.
Why did you leave when you did?
>> Because it became impossible.
The guard collapsed.
I was ready to go to the
ministry of defense and the
ministry was completely empty.
And when the national security
advisor and the head of the pbs
came, they gave me two minutes
with the information that
everything had collapsed and the
Taliban were ready with a couple
of teams to enter and destroy
the palace.
Reporter: You describe it as a
last-minute decision to writ --
believe but in fact the foreign
minister that morning had
prepared your passport.
Did you in fact already have
plans to leave?
>> Yes, because my wife was
leaving.
The passport as an eventuality
had been prepared but I did not
have plans to leave.
If I had plans to leave I
would've had left with something
other than the clothing I was
wearing.
Reporter: A recent report from
the investigator general said it
is unlikely to be true that you
took millions of dollars when
you left would you have been
accused of and you have denied
but the report said there were
$5 million in cash on the palace
grounds.
That money belong to you?
>> I have declared $5 million in
my declaration of assets in
2014.
I do not know how much was left
but my personal assets were
looted.
I did not leave anything because
-- and I don't have any assets
abroad.
Reporter: In the months before
the fall of Afghanistan, were
you surprised with the speed
that districts were falling to
the Taliban?
>> The Taliban could only
function for the long period
because of sanctuary and support
from neighboring countries.
Second, Afghanistan became the
grounds for a proxy war between
the United States and almost
every other major power from
Russia to Iran and others.
Related to this is the loss of
logistical support.
At the end of 2020, there were
about 20,000 contractors and
they were withdrawn to last then
100 in July.
But most significantly, the
Taliban onslaught went without
any coherent diplomatic
response.
Reporter: With the perspective
of one year, what you believe
happened was between the
American withdrawal, the peace
agreement the Americans signed
and international support in
Pakistan for the Taliban and
other intelligence agencies
around the world, that is what
you see lead to the collapse of
your government.
But do you also accept any
blame?
>> Well, of course we all do.
Responsibility is shared.
And where -- what I take
responsibility for is to have
trusted our key partner that
signed our withdrawal agreement
and for one full year is forces
were not attacked by the Taliban
but our forces paid the highest
price.
One has to take responsibility
for trusting a partner that then
trampled our sovereignty and
imposed the release of 5000
prisoners among them the largest
drug dealers in history in the
region.
Reporter: You are describing the
agreement signed by the trump
administration and the Taliban
that put a date on the U.S.
Withdraw and forced the Afghan
government to release 5000
prisoners.
The Afghan government was not
part of those negotiations.
You and your aides have
criticized that agreement for
many years.
By the end of the republic, one
of the chief negotiators was
humiliated.
>> I am not the one who uses
adjectives.
What I want to point out, one,
the assumptions regarding
Taliban were highly flawed and
based on wishful thinking.
Two, it is preparation and its
implementation will go down in
history as one of the worst
agreements ever completed
because it violated all.
And then there were false
assurances to us.
We were ushered to the
cease-fire would take place cash
we were -- we were assured that
the cease-fire would take place
and the future government would
be an indispensable part of the
agreement which they were not.
Reporter: You are talking about
the U.S. Peace deal that led to
what happened but do you not
acknowledge that Afghan cover
meant corruption and
ineffectiveness sapped the
willingness of many of your
soldiers to fight and die for
your government?
>> Corruption has two parts.
Let me bring one to your
attention.
The wartime commission report
that senator Mccaskill
commissioned --
reporter: Can you not a
knowledge that there -- can you
not acknowledge there was
ineffectiveness in the
government?
>> Where did the corruption
start?
It started with the buying of
the warlords by the bush
administration.
The scale of corruption is a
confluence between your new
patterns which [indiscernible]
My agenda was to deal with this
corruption and to contain it.
This corruption was a cancer
that simultaneously you need to
see our sacrifices.
We were losing between 200 and
400 officers and soldiers a day.
A time comes when even steel has
a snapping point.
That point came because even the
cities and provinces where a lot
of the fighting took place could
not receive sustained support.
Reporter: Was there an
alternative strategy and the six
months or year before the fall
of Afghanistan?
You are presented with a couple
of options, arming anti-taliban
forces before you finally did,
something you did at the end, or
even pulling back from defending
the entirety of the country to
defending fewer districts and
cities?
With that have made a
difference?
>> It could have but we need to
understand, 20 years of
engagement had been building
systems based on the premises of
the 2024 departure.
There was an agreed date.
The key was predictability.
Had the U.S. Decided to tell us
in January 2019 that it would
withdraw by 2021, we would've
enabled upland --
reporter: Some of your senior
advisors did warn you that this
withdrawal was coming earlier
rather than later.
>> The U.S. Was of two minds.
The security component
continuously wanted engagement
and without the full
participation of U.S. Security
forces we would not be able to
prepare alone.
Reporter: Let's look at today
and forward.
There is a question in
Washington about how to treat
the Taliban.
Do you think the Biden
administration should inject
funds into Afghanistan beyond
humanitarian aid even if it
would help prop up the Taliban?
>> The Taliban propped up -- the
U.S. Administration propped up
the Taliban.
I would propose a conditionality
based approach where it would go
to the people.
The Taliban are not in need.
The trafficking and the veiled
arsenal becoming part of the
national arms trafficking is
available to them.
The suffering of the people has
to take priority and that has to
be the goal.
Reporter: Do you support the
national resistance front of
Afghanistan led by the former
vice president?
>> The way the Taliban are
conducting themselves, it is
very likely they will be facing
resistance.
Their repression, their
suppression, their denial of
rights and denial of voice -- we
need peoples peace.
Reporter: You said you want to
return to Afghanistan.
Would you return under Taliban
rule?
>> I will not return under the
Taliban rule but I would be
delighted to return as an Afghan
Citi to Afghanistan where
every Afghan feels a sense of
belonging.
Where afghani women and youth
and poor become stakeholders and
finally we get the stability
that has been denied to us.
Reporter: Thank you very much.