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The British Government has opened at least two avenues of contact with the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a field of operations for terrorists and to guarantee a
"safe passage"
to the United Kingdom for more than a thousand refugees, trapped in the country at the same time. termination of evacuation operations.
Several British intelligence agents attached to MI6 held
secret talks
with members of the Taliban in Kabul
in the last two weeks
, according to 'The Daily Telegraph'. The director of the Secret Intelligence Service, Richard Moore, traveled to the area at the end of August and had a meeting with the chief of the Pakistani armed forces, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Simultaneously, the new special envoy of "Premier" Boris Johnson for the "transition" in Afghanistan and chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee,
Simon Grass,
met in Qatar with representatives of the Taliban to negotiate the departure of
up to 7,000 Afghans
from the country
" vulnerable ",
enrolled in the Relocation and Assistance Program (ARAP).
Boris Johnson himself urged the Taliban last week to
cooperate
with the West and prevent Afghanistan from becoming "a breeding ground for terrorists" if it hopes to continue receiving international aid. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab admitted in statements to the BBC that the
United Kingdom "has to face the new reality
in Afghanistan and implement a plan that reflects it."
Raab quelled the barrage of criticism during his appearance in a parliamentary committee and defended the need to
work in concert
with Russia, China and other Central Asian countries "to exert maximum influence to moderate the Taliban" and safeguard the gains of the latter. twenty years, such as greater access to education for women and a decrease in maternal mortality rates.
Wrong estimates
Raab admitted to the parliamentary committee that the British Government's estimates were wrong and that it
was considered "unlikely"
that Kabul would fall into the hands of the Taliban in 2021. According to the head of the Foreign Office, the scenario on which he was working ( shared by the British army and the joint intelligence committee) was that the US withdrawal at the end of August could lead to "a progressive deterioration of the situation", but that the fall of the Afghan capital was not planned for this year .
The Foreign Office has sent a team of 15 specialists to the area to negotiate with neighboring countries for both
economic cooperation
and assistance for future refugee evacuations.
RAF operations culminated last weekend with the transfer of 17,000 people, including British and "vulnerable" Afghans.
MI6's contacts with the Taliban actually occurred during
critical moments
of the evacuation operations and at the same time as the US intelligence offensive, which sent CIA director William Burns to Kabul to meet with Mullah
Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Several intelligence agents, attached to the British embassy in Kabul, participated in the secret meetings before the evacuation of the diplomatic headquarters was completed, according to 'The Daily Telegraph'. The central theme of the talks was apparently the
conditioning
of foreign aid to Afghanistan (which constitutes three-quarters of its budget) to the severing of ties with terrorist organizations.
The attack at the Kabul airport that caused more than 170 deaths and 200 injuries last week has put the Taliban on alert about the risks of hosting Isis-K in their territory, which claimed responsibility for the explosions. It is unknown to what extent the British and American intelligence services would be willing to offer collaboration to eradicate the
threat
from the local branch of the Islamic State.
The British Government also confirmed the displacement to the area of the meeting of the director of MI6, Richard Moore, who took office a year ago. In an official statement, accompanied by a photo, Pakistani General Qamar Javed Bajwa confirmed "the collaboration between the two countries on intelligence and defense matters, with a special emphasis on the situation in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the United States."
On a parallel mission, Simon Gass, appointed as the new special envoy for "transition" in Afghanistan last week, met with representatives of the Taliban in Doha.
The central objective of these talks was to achieve
guarantees
of a "safe passage" for Afghans who have requested asylum in the United Kingdom and who could not leave the country before 31 August.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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