BC News :
The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is Britain’s biggest foreign policy disaster since the Suez crisis of 1956, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee has said.
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said the UK had “abandoned the Afghan people”.
The Taliban have reached the outskirts of the capital Kabul after taking almost every other major city.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee on Sunday afternoon.
Parliament will be recalled on Wednesday for one day to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he had shared his “deep concerns about the future for Afghanistan” with Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
He said they agreed “it is critical that the international community is united in telling the Taliban that the violence must end and human rights must be protected”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “The government has been silent as Afghanistan collapses, which will have ramifications in the UK.”
He said it was a “very sad day” and “our thoughts are with the Afghan people”. The government’s priority “must be to evacuate British personnel and support staff”, he added.
The British ambassador remains in Kabul, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said, but the UK has reduced its diplomatic presence.
“UK government staff continue to work to provide assistance to British nationals and to our Afghan staff,” said a spokesperson.
“We are doing all we can to enable remaining British nationals, who want to leave Afghanistan, to do so.”
Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who found refuge in the UK after being shot in the head by Taliban militants in 2012, said global and regional powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide humanitarian aid and protect refugees.
“We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. I am deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates,” she said.
Mr Tugendhat compared the Afghanistan withdrawal to the UK’s failed invasion of Egypt in 1956, intended to regain control of the Suez canal, which is seen by many historians as marking the end of Britain’s role as a major world power.
Speaking ahead of Mr Raab’s comments on Sunday, he also said: “We haven’t heard from the foreign secretary in about a week, despite this being the biggest single foreign policy disaster since Suez, so I don’t know what the Foreign Office is thinking.”
He said the pull-out in Afghanistan showed a lack of “strategic patience”, stripped the Afghan army of their logistics and air support and “convinced them there was no tomorrow”.
That emboldened Taliban militants, allowing them to sweep through many major cities, he suggested.
