Desk Report
Publish: 30 Aug 2021, 09:01 pm
Representational Image || Photo: Collected
The UK government
has said it will continue to drive a coordinated international response to
Afghanistan under Taliban control after its last troops left the country over
the weekend, with a series of diplomatic efforts planned from Monday.
According to
diplomatic sources in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO),
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will participate in a meeting with Qatar,
Turkey, fellow G7 partners and NATO on Monday.
He will use the US
chaired meeting with like-minded partners on Afghanistan to emphasise the UK's
four international priorities: preventing Afghanistan from becoming a haven for
terrorists; responding to the humanitarian plight; safeguarding regional stability;
and holding the Taliban to account for human rights.
In particular, the
minister is expected to stress the importance of ensuring the Taliban stand by
their commitment to allow safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans
authorized to enter third countries.
On
counter-terrorism, he will underline the need for the Taliban to demonstrate
that they are implementing the counter-terrorism commitments made in Doha, the
sources indicated.
Raab will also set
out some principles for how the West should engage the Taliban: on a pragmatic
basis, responsive to the actions of the Taliban not just their words and
coordinated across the international community with as broad a coalition as
possible.
Meanwhile in New
York, the UK says it has been working hard behind the scenes to establish a
joint position among the five permanent members (P5) the US, France, China,
Russia and the UK of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Following a
meeting of Deputy Permanent Representatives of the P5 last week, the UN Secretary
General is convening P5 Ambassadors on Monday evening.
The UK acknowledged
the need to work with Russia and China, given their potential ability to
influence the new Afghan government and collective interests in countering
terrorism and narcotics, preventing a refugee crisis and averting further
economic collapse.
In parallel, the UK
said that working with the US and France it will continue to press for a UNSC
resolution that would send a clear message to the Taliban on standing by their
commitment to safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans with travel
authorisation from third countries, the imperative that Afghanistan is not be
allowed to be used as a base for terrorist attacks, and the importance of
enabling humanitarian access and so that UN staff have a safe environment to
continue their vital humanitarian work on the ground.
The draft
resolution has been under negotiation amongst UNSC members over the weekend
with the aim of adopting it early this week.
Finally, in Doha,
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Special Representative for Afghan
Transition, Simon Gass, is set to engage partners on the same set of issues
seeking to ensure a coordinated message is delivered by special representatives
to the Taliban and to advance the four priority areas.
"If [the
Taliban] start acting like a government, if they start facilitating both
internal travel and exiting from Afghanistan, then we will engage with them on
that basis," UK Middle East Minister James Cleverly told the BBC.
"But of course
what we are not able to do, what no country is ever really able to do, is give
an absolute cast-iron guarantee," he said.
Ahead of the August
31 exit deadline from Afghanistan, the UK said more than 15,000 people have
been evacuated since August 14. However, it is feared that about 800 to 1,100
eligible Afghans, including those who worked for the UK government, and 100 to
150 British people were unable to get on evacuation flights.
On Sunday, prime
minister Johnson said the UK and its allies would "engage with the Taliban
not on the basis of what they say but what they do".
"If the new
regime in Kabul wants diplomatic recognition, or to unlock the billions that
are currently frozen, they will have to ensure safe passage for those who wish
to leave the country, to respect the rights of women and girls, to prevent
Afghanistan from, again, becoming an incubator for global terror, because that
would be disastrous for Afghanistan," he said.
The Opposition
Labour Party has criticised the government's handling of the crisis and accused
ministers of being "missing in action".
Shadow foreign
secretary Lisa Nandy has written to Raab warning him that the government was
working with a "serious underestimate" of the number of people
eligible for evacuation who had been left behind. (PTI)
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