Uzbek Foreign Ministry denies reports Afghan president is on its territory

Ashraf Ghani

TASHKENT, August 17. /TASS/: Rumors about the alleged presence of Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani and other Afghan officials in Uzbekistan have nothing to do with reality, the news agency Dunyo (Peace) operating under the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Lately, the mass media and social networks carried reports about the alleged presence of some officials and leaders of Afghanistan’s ethnic groups on the territory of Uzbekistan. In particular, the names of Ashraf Ghani, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammadi Nur and others are mentioned in this context. According to official sources, such rumors have nothing to do with the reality," the statement runs.

On Sunday, the television broadcaster Al Jazeera quoted an Afghan presidential bodyguard that President Ashraf Ghani and his wife had arrived in the capital of Uzbekistan.

On April 14, US President Joe Biden declared his decision to curtail the operation in Afghanistan, which had turned out to be the longest-ever foreign military campaign in US history. Against this background, the security situation in the country deteriorated sharply. The radical Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) entered the capital Kabul and established control of nearly the whole territory of the country.