Afghan president Ashraf Ghani defends fleeing country and denies taking millions in state money

Afghanistan's president has defended fleeing the country amid the Taliban takeover and also denied claims that he left with millions of pounds of state money.

Ashraf Ghani posted a video on his Facebok page late on Wednesday, confirming that he was in the United Arab Emirates. He thanked Afghan security forces in his message, but also said that the “failure of the peace process” led to the Taliban snatching power.

He said leaving Afghanistan was the only way to prevent bloodshed and indirectly tried to quash an accusation by Afghanistan’s ambassador to Tajikistan that he had stolen $169 million (£123 million) from state funds.

He claimed that he was “forced to leave Afghanistan with one set of traditional clothes, a vest and the sandals I was wearing.”

“Accusations were charged in these days that money was transferred, these accusations are fully baseless,” he said.

He also said he supported the talks the Taliban are holding with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a senior official in the ousted government.

Mr Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday as the Taliban approached Kabul.

On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said Mr Ghani and his family were in the country for "humanitarian considerations".