British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it is clear there will be a new government in place in Afghanistan "very shortly."
“It’s clear there is going to be very shortly a new government in Kabul, or a new political dispensation, however you want to put it,” he said in an interview on Sunday.
Johnson went on to call on the UK’s allies in the West to “work together” to make sure Afghanistan does not become the breeding ground for terrorism that it once was.
“I think it’s very important that the west, collectively, should work together to get over to that new government, be it by the Taliban or anybody else, that nobody wants Afghanistan once again to be a breeding ground for terror,” he said. “We don’t think that it’s in the interests of the people of Afghanistan that it should lapse back into that.”
“We don’t want anybody bilaterally recognizing the Taliban, we want a united position amongst all the like-minded, as far as we can get one,” he added.
Johnson described the situation in Afghanistan as “extremely difficult” and worsening, adding that, in his view, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was expected.
“I think it’s fair to say the US decision to pull out has accelerated things,” he explained. “We’ve known for a long time this was the way things were going.”
The British prime minister added that his government’s priority was first and foremost to UK citizens and Afghan support staff that helped the UK over the past two decades.
“Our priority is to make sure we deliver on obligations to UK nationals in Afghanistan, to all those who have helped the British effort in Afghanistan over 20 years and to get them out as fast as we can,” he said, adding that the UK ambassador was working around the clock.
“Two thousand have left, we’re going to get as many as we can in the next few days,” he concluded.
From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio
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