UK international minister says intelligence was Afghan capital wouldn’t fall this yr

Britain’s international minister Dominic Raab mentioned the intelligence evaluation was that it was unlikely Kabul would fall this yr as he defended Britain’s withdrawal from Afghanistan after the Taliban swept throughout the nation way more shortly.
Britain, just like the United States, didn’t predict how shortly the Afghan authorities would fall, that means it had not made adequate preparation for the chaos that may comply with when the Taliban seized energy.
In an emergency session of parliament’s international affairs committee to debate the disaster in Afghanistan, Raab mentioned the central evaluation of Britain’s intelligence service was that the Taliban would solely consolidate its management of the nation within the months after western nations had evacuated their troops.

“The central proposition was that, given the troop withdrawal by the end of August, you would see a steady deterioration from that point, and that it was unlikely Kabul would fall this year,” Raab informed the committee of lawmakers.
“That doesn’t mean we didn’t do contingency planning or game-out or test the other propositions. And just to be clear, that’s something that was widely shared – that view – amongst NATO allies.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confronted calls to sack Raab in latest weeks after he went on vacation in Crete because the Taliban superior on Kabul and amid claims that 1000’s of emails from folks in search of assist to go away Afghanistan had gone unread.

Defending his dealing with of the disaster, Raab mentioned he had had greater than 40 conferences or calls the place Afghanistan was on the agenda between March and finish of August.
Britain’s final army flight left Kabul late on Saturday, ending a chaotic two weeks by which troopers helped to evacuate greater than 15,000 folks from the crowds who descended on the capital’s airport, determined to flee the nation.
Raab mentioned he would journey to the area, together with visiting Pakistan for the primary time as international minister, afterward Wednesday to debate the disaster.