© Armando Babani/XinhuaPassengers of a flight of Lufthansa bringing evacuees from Afghanistan arrive at Frankfurt International Airport, in Frankfurt, Germany, Aug. 20, 2021.
"What I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan -- working with the Taliban, of course, if necessary -- will go on," Johnson told reporters.
Comment: Back in April, the UK was threatening that it 'reserved the right' to launch new military attacks on Afghanistan.
He said the situation at the Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans gathered in hopes of boarding an evacuation flight, was getting "slightly better," and he saw "stabilization."
Since Thursday, the prime minister said, Britain has been able to evacuate about 2,000 people, including British nationals and Afghans who worked with Britain.
Earlier this week, Britain's Home Office introduced a "bespoke" resettlement plan, promising to take in up to 20,000 Afghans "in the long-term," with some 5,000 being in the first year.
British lawmakers who met for an emergency parliament session on Wednesday considered the plan far from enough to deal with the Afghan crisis.
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) will meet online early next week to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, as the rift between Washington and its European allies seemed to have widened over the former's hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, French daily Le Monde said, "Europeans were trapped in hasty American withdrawal." Last Friday, British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace said that the U.S. decision to pull its military forces out of Afghanistan was a "mistake."
Comment: As noted in the article Something is wrong with the President, it was predicted months ago (some would say this has been known for years) that US withdrawal would result in the near immediate fall of the Kabul government, and so the idea that Europe was taken unawares by American action is rather dubious. Further, it's likely that there are some in the establishment who are taking advantage of the optics of the messy situation - because it's not all 'chaos' in the country, the Russian embassy reports it's actually "safer than before" - as well as the ensuing disruption can provide cover to achieve other, nefarious, goals.
Regardless, Bojo and his allies are a little late to the party because Russia and China are already working with the Taliban to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan, and Russia has been talking with all parties for a number of years now. Moreover, it's likely that the Taliban and the people of Afghanistan may be a little wary of working with those that, just a few months ago, were threatening to reignite war on their country:
- Pepe Escobar: How Russia-China are stage-managing the Taliban
- Taliban fighters killed & captured after Afghan militias seize 3 districts just north of Kabul - reports
- As America's attempt to Westernise Afghanistan by force fails, Kabul may now find its place in Russian & Chinese-dominated Eurasia
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: The Great (End)Game - Closing the Afghan War, Opening the 'Covid War'?