Will do all the pieces we will to make sure that these folks get the protected passage they deserve: Boris Johnson
London:
Britain on Monday stated it could do its utmost to rescue greater than 300 Afghans who helped its armed forces however at the moment are languishing below the brand new Taliban regime.
Addressing parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not reply a query on what number of British-Afghans remained after a hurried Western airlift was ended.
Hundreds made it out from Kabul on packed Royal Air Pressure planes, however he stated 311 folks had been left behind who’re eligible for the UK’s Afghan Relocations and Help Coverage, reminiscent of interpreters.
“We are going to do all the pieces we will to make sure that these folks get the protected passage that they deserve,” Johnson stated.
The airlift was “probably the most spectacular operations in our nation’s post-war historical past”, he stated, vowing an “equal effort” to accommodate and educate Afghans newly arrived in Britain.
Johnson demanded the Taliban honour commitments to permit out these wishing to depart, and to respect ladies’s rights, if the militia needs to realize entry to billions of {dollars} in Afghan funds frozen abroad.
Talking forward of Saturday’s twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 assaults by Al-Qaeda, the prime minister pressed the Taliban particularly to forestall Afghanistan changing into a haven for extremists to launch assaults overseas.
Johnson defended the UK and Western intervention in 2001. Critics, together with some in his Conservative social gathering, say the Taliban’s triumphant return to energy exhibits the hassle was in useless.
He stated that later this month, he would press on the UN Common Meeting in New York for consensus to carry the Islamists to account.
“We are going to choose the Taliban by their actions, not their phrases — and use each financial, political and diplomatic lever to guard our personal nations from hurt and to assist the Afghan folks,” the UK chief stated.
The federal government confronted recent criticism for underestimating the Taliban, with International Secretary Dominic Raab dealing with calls for to stop after he failed initially to cancel a vacation to Greece as Afghanistan imploded final month.
Johnson failed to precise backing for Raab, who’s tipped to be moved from his job in a cupboard reshuffle reportedly coming this week.
Talking in parliament later, the overseas secretary denied being complacent, and stated Britain had extricated greater than 17,000 folks from Afghanistan since April.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)