Raab to visit Pakistan to discuss Afghan evacuation efforts

LONDON: UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will be visiting Pakistan to hold high level talks with Pakistani officials related to Afghan evacuation efforts.

Officials of Pakistan and the UK spoke on Tuesday to finalise the visit of Raab to Pakistan as the foreign secretary has been under intense criticism for not being on the scene as Kabul fell and thousands of Britons were left stranded as the government of Ashraf Ghani collapsed.

A UK government source confirmed to this reporter that the foreign secretary will be in Pakistan to hold talks with the Pakistan government officials. The source shared that Raab will meet civilian and military leadership. The visit is being arranged on the request of the UK government which wants to get remaining British nationals out of the region through third countries, the source added. The source further said Raab will also likely to meet a representative of the Afghanistan government.

PA adds: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab indicated on Wednesday that he would visit Pakistan during diplomatic efforts to help rescue those left behind after foreign forces left Kabul.

Raab said he would be departing on Wednesday following a combative grilling by MPs over the Government’s handling of the crisis during an emergency session of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

He said he could not determine how many Afghans were left behind when the RAF departed Afghanistan but admitted they included guards who had secured the British embassy in Kabul. There was sustained questioning on how the UK failed to predict the speed in which the Afghan government would fall to the Taliban, which ultimately seized Kabul on August 15.

Raab said UK intelligence indicated Kabul was “unlikely” to fall this year, as he prepared to head to the region around Afghanistan for evacuation talks. He said: “The central assessment that we were operating to, and it was certainly backed up by the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) and the military, is that the most likely, the central proposition, was that given the troop withdrawal by the end of August, you’d see a steady deterioration from that point and it was unlikely Kabul would fall this year.”

The minister partly blamed an “optimism bias” surrounding the UK’s assumptions when asked by Bob Seely, a Tory MP who served in Afghanistan, why Britain got it “so badly wrong”.

Raab revealed to the cross-party group that he would be heading “to the region” after the hearing, but declined to say where exactly due to security reasons.

But he went on to indicate he was going to Pakistan during the trip when asked by committee chairman Tom Tugendhat: “Is this your first trip to Pakistan?”

“I’ve been to Pakistan before but not as Foreign Secretary,” the minister responded.

It is understood his diplomatic efforts will centre on how to get Afghans and any remaining British nationals out of the region through third countries.

The Prime Minister’s special representative for Afghan transition, Sir Simon Gass, has already travelled to Qatar to meet “senior Taliban representatives” about allowing people to leave Afghanistan.

The news of Sir Simon’s visit emerged as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced 15 crisis response specialists are being deployed to Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to assist British diplomats in their work to allow people to escape Afghanistan over land borders and reach the UK.

The officials are expected to arrive within the next 48 hours, with the focus on helping UK nationals, interpreters and other Afghans who were employed by the UK, and those Afghans judged most at risk.

MI6 chief Richard Moore has reportedly held talks with the Pakistan military on Afghanistan in recent days. Raab was unable to say how many Afghans who are vulnerable under Taliban rule because they aided Britain’s efforts in Afghanistan were left behind. When grilled on the numbers, the minister said: “I can’t give you a definitive answer. “I’m not confident with precision to be able to give you a set number, but I am confident that the Prime Minister is right, that we’ve got the overwhelming number out.”

But the Foreign Secretary admitted that some of those left behind included Afghans who worked as guards at the British embassy in Kabul. More than 8,000 former Afghan staff and their family members eligible under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) were among the 15,000-plus people evacuated by the UK since August 13. Raab has said the number of UK nationals left behind is in the “low hundreds”. Ben Wallace has described the continuing evacuation efforts as “Dunkirk by WhatsApp”, with officials scrambling to contact Afghans who worked with the British military effort to help relocate them and their families. Labour MP Chris Bryant asked whether he was already on the Greek island on August 11 when the US was warning the group was likely to take power.