A ceremony to swear in Ashraf Ghani as president has been delayed, but contradicted reasons cited a day earlier by the U.S. government behind the postponement.
The U.S. State Department on Tuesday said that the Afghan government had agreed to postpone its presidential inauguration.
Ghani was scheduled to take the oath of office on Thursday, according to an Afghan official, but a statement from the presidential palace on Wednesday said the event would now be held on March 9.
The reasons the presidential palace cited for the delay pertained to rumors about Coronavirus in Afghanistan, and the short notice for world leaders to attend the inauguration.
The signing of an agreement, which will include the pulling out of U.S. troops, is to be culmination of a seven-day reduction in violence.
President Donald Trump has made the withdrawal of U.S. service members from Afghanistan after 18 years of fighting a major foreign policy objective.
