The UK government must show leadership over the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan, the Labour leader has said, as a former head of the British army called on the prime minister to launch an urgent humanitarian aid operation.
Keir Starmer said there is a risk of a global terror group taking control of the country after the withdrawal of British and US forces, while Richard Dannatt said there is still time to show Afghans that they are not being completely abandoned.
“What I want to see is our government stepping up and leading this, and calling for an urgent meeting of Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and an urgent UN security council meeting,” said Starmer.
“We have obligations to Afghanistan, we made promises to Afghanistan and we cannot walk away and let this turn into a humanitarian crisis, probably a refugee crisis as well,” he added. “There is a real risk that international terrorism will take hold again in Afghanistan, so we can’t walk away and undermine the legacy of the last 20 years.”
He urged the government to respond positively to the latest call by the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, for international assistance to end the conflict in his country.
And he said the timing of the decision to pull out international forces from the country was “not right”, adding: “There appears to have been a miscalculation of the strength of the Taliban on the one side, and the resilience of the Afghan troops and government on the other.”
Thousands of refugees fleeing the Taliban have been pouring into the capital Kabul as the militants continued their lightning advance across the country.
The collapse of Afghan government forces followed the US decision to withdraw remaining forces, leading allies to follow.
While Lord Dannatt said he shared the anger of many military veterans who served in Afghanistan at the way the country was being left to its fate, he insisted it was still not too late for the UK government to act.
“It is OK to extract our British citizens. What about mounting a humanitarian operation in Kabul to look after some of the refugees, to build some camps, bring in some humanitarian supplies?” he told BBC Breakfast.
“At least let’s show to the Afghan government we are not completely abandoning them and that we still stand side by side with them,” Lord Dannatt said. “It is quite possible to do that. I think our government should be thinking about that kind of response even though it has now pulled the plug on our wider military response.”
“There may come a moment when our last troops have got to go but until that point, let us do what we can to help with the humanitarian crisis, even if we have given up helping on the military side,” he added.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that the current situation was the “inevitable logical consequence” of the decision by the Biden administration to withdraw all remaining US forces by the 20th anniversary next month of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
He insisted that the sacrifices of the British armed forces who fought in the country had not been in vain, but said there was no question now of a “military solution” to stop the Taliban.
He said the government would use whatever leverage it could – including the UK overseas aid budget – to ensure that Afghanistan did not become a breeding ground for terrorism.
However, there is anger among MPs across the political spectrum at the way events unfolded, with calls for parliament to be recalled from its summer break so they can discuss the crisis.