LONDON (Agencies): Boris Johnson will make a statement to Parliament tomorrow on British troops’ final pullout from Afghanistan.
Taliban fighters have made huge gains since US and UK forces withdrew from the war-ravaged country earlier this month.
The Prime Minister, who will address the Commons at lunchtime, admitted he was “apprehensive” about the “fraught” security situation.
He told the Commons Liaison Committee today: “The people of Afghanistan have been the beneficiaries of decades of UK support and investment.
“We have done our level best to help the stability, security and peace of that country. Hundreds of British troops have died in that cause and if you ask me whether I feel happy about the current situation in Afghanistan, of course I don’t.
“I’m apprehensive, I think that the situation is fraught with risks.” He hoped the government based in the capital could thrash out a peace deal with insurgents.
“We must hope that the parties in Kabul can come together to reach an agreement and somehow or other we must hope that an accommodation must be found eventually with the Taliban,” he told MPs.
“We must be realistic about the situation we are in and what we have to hope is that the blood and treasure spent by this country protecting Afghanistan hasn’t been in vain and that the legacy of their efforts is protected.”
The UK’s remaining 750 troops, who were involved in training local forces after British combat soldiers left in 2014, started to pull out of the country in May.
The withdrawal followed US President Joe Biden’s decision that all US troops will have left by September 11 – the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda terror attacks which triggered the War on Terror.
The head of Britain’s armed forces, General Sir Nick Carter, admitted in April it was “not a decision that we’d hoped for”.
American forces left Bagram air base this month.
