LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2021) The Taliban (terrorist organization, banned in Russia) assured the United Kingdom of security for the British in Afghanistan and of Afghans willing to leave the country, UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky news on Monday, expressing doubt in militants upholding these promises.
"The assurances I got were that these people [British and associated Afghans] would not be interfered with and that they [Taliban] want to demonstrate that people could come and go from Afghanistan as freely as possible," Wallace said in an interview.
The defense secretary noted the United Kingdom was communicating with the Islamist movement through a third party, a middle Eastern country.
"I certainly think they will not miss the lesson from 2001 that hosting terrorism and running a state as they did led to rampant poverty and immigration, a refugee crisis and indeed the toppling of that regime," Wallace told Sky News, answering a question about the trustworthiness of those assurances.
On Thursday, before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, London announced that it would send 600 troops to Kabul to facilitate evacuation of British nationals and Afghans working for the UK.
On Sunday, the Taliban entered Kabul after a number of offensives on larger cities. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country.
