US State Secretary Antony Blinken goofs up, mistakes Ashraf Ghani as Hamid Karzai: Watch

In a slip of tongue, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while interacting in an interview, mistakenly called former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as President Hamid Karzai. This happened when Blinken was addressing a televised interview about the ongoing evacuation procedure in Afghanistan, where he erroneously said he had talked to President Hamid Karzai the day before he left. Notably, former president Hamid Karzai headed Afghanistan for the first time after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

In his address about the Afghanistan turmoil, Blinken said, "Rewind a week. The government was deposed. By the way, I was on the phone with President Karzai the day before, and he told me that he intended to fight to the death. "Well, he was gone the following day, "Blinken explained in an interview. He further added, saying, "The military had disintegrated. And at that time, our troops went to the airport, secured it, and moved our embassy to safety at the airport from the diplomatic compound".

Afghanistan turmoil

Ever since the United Nations pulled out its army from Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed the nation with violent, and took control of the country, resulting in the extraordinary fall of the America-backed Ashraf Ghani government. The terror outfit in Afghanistan breached the high doors of Kabul on August 15, and since then, people in large numbers have been leaving the country, to escape the Taliban's cruel rule and harsh laws. The Taliban's takeover has created entirely different chaos in Afghanistan, creating a humanitarian crisis. People in large numbers have been leaving their homeland, swarming over the Kabul airport, relying on armed forces for evacuation. Ever since the Taliban became the new ruler after the Ghani government's fall, Afghan civilians and nationals of other countries have been leaving the violence-stricken country with assistance from the US Army, Indian Army, UK, Germany, at the Kabul airport.

Former President Ashraf Ghani's take on leaving the country

Ashraf Ghani has been accused of secretly running out of his country in an hour of dire need. He recently broke his silence and said that he had left the country only to prevent "further bloodshed". Ghani, in a video message, said he did not run away and all the allegations against him were false. He said he just left to protect the civilians of his country and lauded the efforts of Afghan security in fighting the Taliban.

IMAGE: AP