The British Government has opened at least two contact pathways with the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan becoming a field of terrorist operations and to guarantee a "safe passage" towards the United Kingdom to more than a thousand refugees, trapped in the country. Term of evacuation operations.
Several British intelligence agents attached to MI6 kept secret conversations in the last weeks with members of the Taliban in Kabul, according to the 'The Daily Telegraph'. The director of the Secret Intelligence Service, Richard Moore, moved to the area at the end of August and maintained an encounter with the head of the Armed Forces of Pakistan, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Simultaneously, the new Special Envoy of the "Premier" Boris Johnson for the "Transition" in Afghanistan and Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Simon Grass, met in Qatar with representatives of the Taliban to negotiate the departure of the country of up to 7,000 Afghans " Vulnerable ", enrolled in the Relocation and Assistance Program (ARAP, for its acronym in English).
Boris Johnson himself urged the Taliban last week to cooperate with the West and prevent Afghanistan from becoming "a culture broth for terrorists" if he aspires to continue receiving international assistance. Foreign secretary Dominic Raab, admitted to the BBC statements that the United Kingdom "has to face the new reality of Afghanistan and launch a plan that reflects it."
RAAB applied the rain of criticism during its appearance in a parliamentary committee and defended the need to work in accordance with Russia, China and other countries of Central Asia "to exercise maximum influence to moderate the Taliban" and safeguard the profits of the last Twenty years, as greater access to women's education and a decline in mortality rates during motherhood.
RAAB admitted to the Parliamentary Committee that the Estimates of the British Government were erroneous and that it was considered "unlikely" that Kabul came to fall into the hands of the Taliban in 2021. According to the head of the Foreign Office, the scenario on which he worked ( shared by the British Army and by the Joint Intelligence Committee) was that American withdrawal at the end of August could give rise to "a progressive deterioration of the situation", but the one that the fall of Afghan capital was not foreseen for this year .
The Foreign Office has sent a team from 15 specialists to negotiate with the countries bordering both economic cooperation and assistance for future refugee evacuations. The operations of the RAF culminated last weekend with the transfer of 17,000 people, including British and Afghans "vulnerable".
The MI6 contacts with the Taliban occurred in fact during the critical moments of evacuation operations and at the same time as the Offensive of American Intelligence, who displaced Kabul the director of the CIA, William Burns, to keep an encounter with The Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Several intelligence agents, attached to the British embassy in Kabul, participated in secret meetings before the evacuation of the diplomatic headquarters is completed, as revealed by 'The Daily Telegraph'. The central theme of the talks was apparently the conditioning of foreign aid to Afghanistan (which constitutes three quarters of its budget) to the rupture of ties with terrorist organizations.
The attack at the Kabul Airport that caused more than 170 dead and 200 wounded last week has placed the Taliban alert on the risks of welcoming Isis-K, which revided explosions. It is unknown to what extent the British and North American intelligence services would be willing to offer collaboration to eradicate the threat of the local branch of the Islamic State.
The British government on the other hand confirmed the displacement to the area of the meeting of the Director of the Mi6, Richard Moore, who took office a year ago. In an official statement, accompanied by a photo, General Pakistani Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed "collaboration between the two countries on intelligence and defense issues, with a special emphasis on the situation of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the United States."
On a parallel mission, Simon Gass, named as a new Special Envoy for the "Transition" in Afghanistan last week, he was interviewed in Doha with representatives of the Taliban. The central objective of these conversations was to achieve guarantees of a "safe passage" for Afghans who have asked for asylum in the United Kingdom and that they could not leave the country before August 31.
Date Of Update: 04 September 2021, 11:22
