Cracks in the relationship between London and Washington have been widened even more after the end of Afghanistan's evacuation operations, between crossed accusations by the loss of human lives (at least 170 dead and 200 injured) in the attacks of Kabul airport Vindicated the ISIS-K, the local branch of the Islamic State.
Pentagon sources accused the United Kingdom having aggravated the impact of explosions for not having closed one of the main airport access doors, Abbey Gate, where the attack occurred. The British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, had to leave on Tuesday at the passage of information.
"It is simply not true to suggest that the United Kingdom pressed to leave the doors open against the desire of the United States and its allies," Raab said to the Sky News chain. "We coordinate the action with the United States, in particular everything that had to do with the threat of ISIS-K that we come to anticipate."
"Although tragically we can not avoid it, the truth is that we took out all our civilian staff from the Abbey Gate processing center and closed operations at a nearby hotel," Raab added. "But it is not true that we press to keep the doors open, instead of ensuring the safety of civilians who were already inside the airport."
"In fact, we had already changed the instructions to travel to the airport before the pumps exploded," added the Foreign Office holder. "People who were in the crowd, and particularly those of British nationality, we were saying that they left the area for the high risk."
The deputy and former conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, especially critical with the role of Washington in the precipitated withdrawal of Afghanistan, also came out in defense of the British government: "If the Americans had been serious about the need to close the doors, they would have closed them ".
The dramatic end to evacuation operations at Kabul Airport has left the growing distance between the "Premier" Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden, who jumped into view during the G7 virtual conference last week. A spokesman for Downing Street was forced to deny that Johnson had come to recognize that "with Trump we would be better" or that he would have referenced Biden as "Sleepy Joe" ("sleepy Joe").
British conservative media came to ensure that Johnson felt "betrayed" and "abandoned" by the retired precipitate ordered by Biden, which put on August 31 as a deadline. On his own at Twitter, the "Premier" emphasized the need not to throw over the rail "the profits of the last twenty years" in Afghanistan.
The "Premier" has also made harsh internal criticism, launched among others by Lord Richard Dannatt, former British army staff. Dannatt accused the British ministers, and in particular Dominic Raab, had "fallen asleep during the guard" as the Afghanistan crisis was worsened in recent months. "It is not true that we have been slow at the time of foreseeing this crisis "Raab defended himself, who has had to face resignation requests for his late reaction during his holiday in Crete. "NATO's intelligence services had warned us since it was going to produce a gradual increase in the advances of the Taliban in August." "What started as a counterterrorist operation in Afghanistan changed towards something similar to a" national construction " , argued Raab. "We have to be realistic, in a hostile climate as Afghanistan, on whether it is possible to reconcile the scope in 20 years of those objectives and the means used to achieve it." The British evacuation operations were closed on Saturday with a total of 17,000 evacuated since mid-August. Some 150 British are still in the country (some of them voluntarily resigned to leave) and more than a thousand Afghans enrolled in the Relocation and Assistance Program (ARAP) did not get to reach Kabul Airport in the chaos of recent days. According to The Guardian, up to 7,000 asylum requests have been received by email and still have to be processed.
Date Of Update: 04 September 2021, 12:48
