Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Afghanistan’s former national security adviser, issued a sharp rebuke of former President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday, calling him a “mentally unwell” individual unfit for leadership.
The remarks came in response to a social media post by Amrullah Saleh, the former vice president, who shared excerpts of Ghani’s past warnings about the risks posed by the 2020 US-Taliban agreement signed in Doha.
In a message posted online, Spanta questioned continued public support for the former president, who fled the country in August 2021 as Taliban forces entered Kabul.
“How long must we continue to support a pathological liar and a mentally unstable man,” Spanta wrote, “who many believe belonged in an asylum more than in a seat of government? What is wrong with you, my friend? Enough — for the sake of the nation, enough.”
The renewed political tensions come amid efforts by former Afghan officials to reframe the narrative around the collapse of the Western-backed republic and to assign blame for the country’s rapid unraveling.
In the video reposted by Mr. Saleh, Mr. Ghani warns that isolating the Afghan government would not lead to peace but instead risk plunging the country into further instability. At the time, Mr. Ghani had said, “They are being arrogant toward the government and ungrateful. They do not realize that Afghanistan could become a vast, roofless prison. They do not understand the meaning of the peace process. Isolating the government will not lead to peace but to civil war, to unprecedented terror — or both.”
Ghani has lived in exile since the fall of Kabul. His defenders cite his efforts to resist Taliban advances, while critics accuse him of abandoning the country in its final hours.
