As Taliban Encircle Kabul, Afghan President Says He Seeks to Avoid Further Bloodshed

KABUL—Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday explained he commenced consultations on how to unite the place and stop even further bloodshed, as the Taliban tightened their grip, seizing supplemental provincial capitals.

Mr. Ghani—in his initial community remarks considering the fact that the Taliban swept through southern and western Afghanistan, capturing the main cities of Kandahar and Herat—said his precedence is to remobilize the Afghan security forces that surrendered en masse.

“As a historic duty, I am hoping to not let the war that has been imposed on the Afghan people today induce the even further killing of innocents, the reduction of 20 decades of achievement, the destruction of community establishments and longstanding instability,” Mr. Ghani explained in a video clip concept posted on social media, the country’s flag unfurled driving him.

Mr. Ghani has come under expanding pressure from Afghan politicians to resign so that a transitional federal government headed by an individual else could negotiate a cease-fireplace with the Taliban and prevent the storming of Kabul, the country’s cash. He gave no indicator he intends to do so, at the very least not immediately.

Afghan negotiators, the Taliban, the U.S. and other nations are engaged in discussions in Doha, Qatar, on how to discover a political settlement to the war, with the elimination of Mr. Ghani currently being a important Taliban demand from customers.