A year ago today Taliban took control of Afghanistan

• Afghanistan’s ex-presidents Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai spoke to US and German media.
• Mr Ghani defended his decision to flee Kabul as rebels encircled the city.
• The 73-year-old refuted claims that he stole $5 million from the presidential mansion.

To commemorate the first anniversary of the Taliban taking over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the two previous presidents of that country have given in-depth interviews.

On August 15 of last year, the city was taken over by Islamist rebels with little resistance as the Western-backed government fell and large numbers of national army soldiers surrendered as the Taliban quickly took possession.

Ashraf Ghani and Hamid Karzai criticised the withdrawal of US forces from the nation early last year in separate interviews with US and German media.

Mr. Ghani, who presided over Afghanistan from 2014 until the Taliban seized control, also justified his choice to leave Kabul as the rebels encircled the city. He received harsh criticism for fleeing, but he told CNN that his defence minister had declared the city defenceless.

Mr. Ghani appeared to be referring to previous president Mohammad Najibullah, who served in power from 1986 to 1992, when he remarked, “”The reason I left was because I did not want to give the Taliban and their supporters the pleasure of yet again humiliating an Afghan president,”

When the Taliban overran Kabul in 1996, they kidnapped, tortured, and eventually executed the communist-era leader.

“I have never been afraid,” Mr Ghani insisted. “I was the last to leave.”

The 73-year-old added that it has grown perilous in his immediate surroundings at the Arg, Afghanistan’s presidential palace. He said that one of his housekeepers had received a $100,000 (£82,443) offer to have him poisoned.

While criticising the absence of Western backing for his government, Mr. Ghani—who is currently living in exile in the United Arab Emirates—refused to say whether he felt “betrayed” by the US.

“I don’t use those types of words,” he said. “I do not have the luxury to engage in blaming or sense of betrayal. Superpowers, big powers, decide on the base of their national interest. What I hope is that they’ve considered the implications of those.”

Mr. Ghani refuted claims that he stole $3 million ($5 million) from the presidential mansion and tens of millions more from a vault at the National Directorate of Security before fleeing the country.

“This is part of a disinformation campaign,” he said. “They have investigated and found nothing.”

A US congressional assessment released last week came to the conclusion that it was extremely impossible for Mr. Ghani and his team to have moved such a sizable sum of money on escape helicopters during the hasty evacuation of Kabul.

Hamid Karzai, who served as his predecessor as president, referred to the US pullout as “disgraceful” in an interview with German network Deutsche Welle (DW).After serving two terms as the country’s president, Mr. Karzai departed office in 2014. He has remained in Kabul since the Taliban took control and has refuted claims that he is a prisoner of the government, as some media sites have reported.

In the interview, he made the long-held assumption of former Afghan security officers that certain residents of the neighbouring country of Pakistan helped the Taliban seize power.

“You heard the former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, speaking to the foreign ministers of the Islamic world in Islamabad, trying to justify that Afghan girls don’t go to school, trying to blame it on traditions, which is wrong, which is entirely wrong,” Mr Karzai told DW.

“Lack of education for girls means half of the society, at least half of the society, are not educated,” he added. “That is a considerably weakened and deprived Afghanistan. So there cannot be any other reason for Pakistan to do this.”

Imran Khan, who is no longer Pakistan’s prime minister, has in the past disputed that his country is an ally of the Taliban, but has been charged with backing the rule by other countries, including the US.

After serving two terms as the country’s president, Mr. Karzai departed office in 2014. He has remained in Kabul since the Taliban took control and has refuted claims that he is a prisoner of the government, as some media sites have reported.

In the interview, he made the long-held assumption of former Afghan security officers that certain residents of the neighbouring country of Pakistan helped the Taliban seize power.

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