Didn't take cash, went in sandals to UAE: Ghani

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday defended his decision to flee Afghanistan, saying it as the only way to prevent bloodshed.

"I didn't want the bloodshed to commence in Kabul as it had in Syria and Yemen. So I decided to go, to leave Kabul," Ghani said in a video message posted on his Facebook page.

"If I had stayed the President of Afghanistan, people would have been hanged and this would have been a dreadful disaster in our history. I am not fearful of an honorable death, and dishonoring Afghanistan was not acceptable to me, but I had to. I was taken out of Afghanistan to avoid bloodshed and the destruction of Afghanistan," he added.

He said that he had no intention of remaining in exile in the Gulf nation and was "in talks" to return home.

Ghani also confirmed that he was in the United Arab Emirates.

He denied the allegation that he left Kabul with suitcases full of cash.

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

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

Ghani backed the recent talks between the terror group and former Afghan president Hamid Karzai to stabilise the country.

On Sunday, as the Taliban entered Kabul, Ashraf Ghani left the country.