WITH Taliban now in power in Afghanistan, Britain faces biggest terrorist threat in many years, prime minister Boris Johnson has been warned.
However, Johnson has offered diplomatic recognition for Taliban if they prevented terror attacks being launched from Afghanistan soil.
Despite the prime minister having promised to use “every lever we have” to stop terrorism, The Times reports that former army commanders, diplomats and MPs say Britain is now significantly less safe after Taliban takeover of Kabul.
“If the new regime in Kabul wants diplomatic recognition” it would have to “prevent Afghanistan from again becoming an incubator for global terror”, Johnson said.
In a video message he said that it was “no accident that there has been no terrorist attack launched against Britain or any other western country from Afghanistan in the last 20 years”.
Britain on Saturday (28) ended the exit process from Kabul and Johnson said “the culmination of a mission unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes” and praised British troops and officials who “worked round the clock to a remorseless deadline, in harrowing conditions” to evacuate 15,000 people in two weeks.
He hinted on Sunday (29) that the Taliban could win diplomatic recognition if they kept terrorism in check and allowed western allies still in Afghanistan to leave. “If the new regime in Kabul wants diplomatic recognition... they will have to ensure safe passage for those who wish to leave the country, to respect the rights of women and girls, to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming an incubator for global terror.”
