Kabul: Amid consistent attacks from Taliban, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday addressed the nation in a recorded message and said that the country is reeling under huge threat due to Taliban’s takeover but he reiterated the situation is under control. As per a report by News18, Ghani is likely to announce his resignation, however, TOLO News said that he didn’t quit.

“I assure you that as your president my focus is to prevent further instability, violence and displacement of people. I’ll not allow imposed war on Afghans to bring further killings, loss of the gains of the last 20 years, destruction of public property,” Ghani said in his address.

He said that under the current situation, remobilizing the Afghan security and defense forces is his top priority.

Ghani’s address to the nation comes at a time when Taliban tightened its territorial stranglehold around Kabul with the country’s second- and third-largest cities having fallen into the insurgents’ hands.

As per the reports, president Ghani was mulling to quit as a part of an ‘urgent ceasefire’ that the government had tried to strike with the Talibans.

The reports also suggested that President Ghani may leave for some “third country” along with all his family members after quitting from office. Amrullah Saleh, the first vice president of Afghanistan, however is not keen on the move.

As per latest updates, fighters of Taliban are now camped just 50 kilometres (30 miles) away, with US and other countries fearing an all-out assault on their nationals in Kabul.

Moreover, the Taliban have captured much of northern, western and southern Afghanistan, and are now battling government forces just 11 kilometers (7 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.

The lightning advance comes less than three weeks before the US is set to withdraw its last forces after nearly 20 years of war. Ghani and other top officials in the Western-backed government have been largely silent on the insurgents’ recent gains.

The Taliban captured much of southern Afghanistan in recent days in a rapid offensive that has raised fears of a full takeover. Their lightning advance has left the Western-backed government in control of a smattering of provinces in the center and east, as well as Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.

The Taliban meanwhile released a video in which an unnamed insurgent announced the takeover of the main radio station in the southern city of Kandahar, which fell to the insurgents earlier this week.