Britain Says Russia and China are Wanted to Average Affect on the Taliban | World information

By Mitchel On Aug 21, 2021

(Reuters) – Despite the mistrust between Britain and these governments, Britain would have to turn to Russia and China for “moderating influence” on the Taliban, said Foreign Minister Dominic Raab.

“We will have to include countries with potentially moderating influence such as Russia and China, as uncomfortable as that may be,” Raab told The Sunday Telegraph.

The Taliban took power from a US-backed government last weekend, displaced thousands and possibly announced a return to the strict and autocratic rule of militants from two decades ago.

The UK and China have recently been at odds on a number of issues including Hong Kong and alleged human rights abuses against the Uyghur ethnic group in China.

Political cartoons about world leaders

The connections between London and Moscow have also been on hold since the ex-double agent Sergei Skripal was poisoned with a Soviet-developed nerve gas called Novichok in 2018.

Relations between the UK and Russia continued to deteriorate after a BBC journalist working in Moscow was told to leave the country.

According to the UK Department of Defense, British forces have evacuated 3,800 people from Kabul since August 13, including 1,323 who made it to the UK.

BLAIR SLAMS ‘LEAVE’ FROM AFGHANISTAN

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said late Saturday that “Afghanistan’s task” is “tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, not in their interests and not in ours.”

The former prime minister, who dispatched British troops to Afghanistan in 2001, said the decision to withdraw from the country was “driven by politics rather than grand strategy”.

Blair added that the UK needed serious thought after what he described as “little or no consultation” by the US in its decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“We (Great Britain) are threatened with relegation to the second world powers. Maybe we don’t mind. But we should at least make the decision carefully,” wrote Blair in a detailed article published on Saturday.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dan Grebler)