Hambullah Mohib, a senior aide to Afghanistan's Former President, Ashraf Ghani speaks to Euronews International Correspondent Anelise Borges and relives the fall of Kabul one year on.
ADVERTISEMENTSince the fall of Kabul and the collapse of the Afghan government many of its members have been trying to set the record straight and tell their side of the story.
Among those officials is Mr Hamdullah Mohib the former national security advisor for president Ashraf Ghani. One year on, Mohib sat down with Euronews International Correspondent Anelise Borges to discuss the government's exit.
Anelise Borges: You were part of an administration many of the Afghans I met say failed them, failed to protect them, failed to fight for them against the Taliban. Do you accept that? Do you feel as though you and your colleagues failed to a certain extent?
Hambullah Mohib: I think the fall of the republic is a collective failure that we are also part of.
I think the Afghan government was supported by its international partners and what led to the collapse of the government was a combination of a number of things that we all did - including the way the negotiations with the Taliban were conducted.
I warned that earlier in the negotiations in 2019 that the way it was conducted was going to delegitimise the Afghan government.
Once that legitimacy is gone, it will be hard for any security force to protect that government.
And it’s exactly what happened, people lost their lives, everybody lost their lives, their livelihoods… their entire world if I may say that.
Anelise Borges: Can you tell us about that day? Can you tell us what happened on August 15 2021.
Hambullah Mohib: The day of August 15 is a day of multiple realities.
I think many things happened and happened so quickly that one could dwell over every minute of what was happening, and what changed every second of the day.
But as Afghan history has seen, when a government is about to collapse it happens very, very quickly, including the Taliban’s own regime - when it fell, it was very quick.
Previous Afghan governments that have fallen, the lead up can take a long time but once it arrives it’s very quick and there’s only a small window in which some things can be done and that includes saving the life of the president.
Because we were going to leave lose the country no matter. It was obvious.
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