The United Arab Emirates says it has accepted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his family for “humanitarian considerations.”
Mr. Ghani fled Afghanistan just as the Taliban approached Kabul.
The statement carried by the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency on Wednesday did not say where Ghani was in the country.
It quoted the country’s Foreign Ministry in a one-sentence statement.
The Taliban violently broke up a protest in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least one person as they quashed a rare public show of dissent. The militant group meanwhile met with former officials from the toppled Western-backed government.
The insurgents' every action in their sudden sweep to power is being watched closely. They insist they have changed and won’t impose the same draconian restrictions they did when they last ruled Afghanistan, all but eliminating women’s rights, carrying out public executions and harboring al-Qaida in the years before the 9/11 attacks.
But many Afghans remain deeply skeptical, and the violent response to Wednesday's protest could only fuel their fears. Thousands are racing to the airport and borders to flee the country. Many others are hiding inside their homes, fearful after prisons and armories were emptied during the insurgents’ blitz across the country.
