Boris Johnson says global leaders must do 'whatever we can' to stop Afghanistan becoming breeding ground for terrorism

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said governments around the world must do “whatever we can” to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a breeding ground for terrorism after the Taliban took control of the country.

He said the UK will work with the United Nations Security Council and NATO to send a clear message, but will not enter into bilateral negotiations with the extremist group.

President Ashraf Ghani fled the country yesterday, as Taliban fighters entered the capital Kabul and Western nations scrambled to evacuate citizens and diplomats from their respective embassies, and the city fell hours later.

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The insurgents defeated Government troops and reclaimed control of the country within a matter of weeks, as US-led forces withdrew after a 20-year military campaign.

Prime minister Boris JohnsonPrime minister Boris Johnson
Prime minister Boris Johnson

Mr Johnson called a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergencies committee, when fighters stood poised to take control, and it was announced that Parliament will be recalled on Wednesday so MPs can discuss the situation.

“Our priority is to make sure we deliver on our obligations to UK nationals in Afghanistan; to all those who have helped the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years and to get them out as fast as we can,” said Mr Johnson.

“The situation remains very difficult and it’s clear that there is going to be very shortly a new government in Kabul or a new political dispensation, however you want to put it.

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“I think it’s very important that the West collectively work together to get over to that new government – be it the Taliban or anybody else – that nobody wants Afghanistan once again to be a breeding ground for terror and we don’t think it’s in the interest of the people of Afghanistan that it should lapse back into that pre-2001 state.”

Tobias Ellwood, chair of the defence committee and a former soldier, has criticised the withdrawal and said MPs should vote on whether British forces should return to the war-torn nation

or “abandon the Afghan people and allow a new haven for terrorism”.

He said: “The humanitarian disaster that is about to unfold will be catastrophic, the migration challenges will be huge.

“We will see further terrorist attacks.”

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Labour has called on Home Secretary Priti Patel to urgently expand the resettlement programme for Afghans who worked with the British military and government organisations over the past 20 years.

Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “The Taliban’s return is likely to drive many thousands of people from their homes, with women and girls at particular risk. The UK Government must put in place specific safe and legal asylum routes to help provide support.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is under fire after spending the past week on holiday abroad while the situation in Afghanistan was unravelling.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Mr Raab was returning to the UK yesterday and was “personally overseeing” the department’s response to the crisis.

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However Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said that his absence during a moment of major international upheaval was unacceptable. “For the Foreign Secretary to go AWOL during an international crisis of this magnitude is nothing short of shameful,” she said.

“A catastrophe is unfolding in front of our eyes and while the Foreign Secretary is nowhere to be seen, hundreds of British nationals are being evacuated and his department is cancelling scholarships for young Afghans.”

Among senior parliamentarians there was shock at the speed of the Afghan collapse after the West had invested billions in building up the country’s armed forces.

In the course of little over a week many cities fell to the Taliban without a fight after tribal elders stepped in to negotiate the withdrawal of government forces in order to avoid bloodshed.

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While much of the anger was directed at the US for its decision to withdraw its forces, precipitating the collapse, some MPs expressed concern that Britain could have done more to avert the crisis.

Mr Johnson said however that while the US decision had “accelerated things”, the end was inevitable.

“This has been in many ways something that has been a chronicle of an event foretold. We’ve known for a long time that this was the way things were going,” he said.

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