The United Kingdom (UK) is in talks with Taliban to provide secure “safe passage” for its citizens and Afghans who have worked for the British government.


According to a government statement late on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s special representative for Afghan transition, Simon Gass, flew to Doha, Qatar, to meet Taliban representatives.
Much of the Taliban’s senior leadership lived in exile in the Qatari capital until the overthrow of Afghanistan’s Western-backed government after two decades of war.
Gass “is meeting with senior Taliban representatives to underline the importance of safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals, and those Afghans who have worked with us over the past twenty years,” the statement said.
It is the first publicly disclosed statement about diplomacy between London and the Taliban since UK joined the United States in the mammoth airlift of more than 100,000 people out of the country after the Afghan military’s capitulation.
The Taliban has pledged to allow Afghans to come and go in the face of calls from the international community to honour that commitment in the days after the US withdrawal on Tuesday.
More than 8,000 Afghans who helped NATO forces made it out of Afghanistan and the British government said they would be given indefinite leave to remain.
But Johnson has come under fire after many Afghans who helped NATO – and are eligible to move to the UK – were believed to have been left stranded in Afghanistan, where they are at the mercy of the Taliban.
An unnamed British minister told the Sunday Times newspaper that he believed the UK could have evacuated “800-1,000 more people” in the chaotic airlift.
Johnson’s government sought to extend the US withdrawal deadline of August 31 but ultimately failed to persuade President Joe Biden.
After the Taliban swept into Kabul in mid-August, the British prime minister said the Taliban must be judged on its “actions rather than by its words” and insisted the UK could not have remained in Afghanistan without American support.
British foreign minister Dominic Raab was also condemned by the opposition Labour party for not immediately leaving a beach holiday when the Taliban took control.
Courtesy: Al Jazeera

Thunderstorms predicted in various parts of country
- 5 hours ago

New era of high-speed internet in Pakistan, Amazon to introduce Project Kuiper by 2026
- 3 hours ago

Punjabi actor, bodybuilder Virender Singh Ghuman passes away
- 3 hours ago

Two explosions in Afghan capital Kabul
- 6 hours ago

Twin cities blocked, internet suspended, 144 in Punjab
- 6 hours ago

Israeli govt approves ceasefire agreement in Gaza
- 6 hours ago

Magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes off Philippines coast
- 4 hours ago

Amir Balaj murder case: Police bring back main accused Teefi Butt from Dubai
- 2 hours ago

Holiday declared in Sindh on October 20
- 3 hours ago

Nobel Peace Prize goes to Venezuelan pro-democracy woman, not Trump
- 28 minutes ago
Family forgives driver after death of Karachi University student in campus accident
- an hour ago

Immediate home time in all govt, private schools in Lahore
- 3 hours ago