Former UK Ambassador to Afghanistan William Patey has warned that the west has “very little leverage” over Afghanistan to contain unrest and that the Talliban has “all the cards”. It came after president Joe Biden said that the US would evacuate all citizens and personnel by August 31 with no extensions, despite allies urging the US to postpone the deadline.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight, William Patey said: “The west has very little leverage.
“Most of that leverage was negotiated away with the agreement in February 2020 by the Trump administration when they agreed to withdraw troops without any guarantees about future political settlement in Afghanistan or any guarantees about future Taliban behavior.
“So the Taliban have all the cards.
“There is some leverage in that development assistance.”
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He continued: ‘The $9 billion of Afghan reserves are frozen in New York.
“Development assistance will only be forthcoming if the Taliban meet certain red lines that the West have set.
“But it depends on whether the Taliban are pragmatic or not or whether they want to have a prosperous Afghanistan, which is different from the one they ran in the late 90s.”
Sir William continued: “Their biggest problems are they’re inheriting a country that’s very different from the one the two Coover is in the mid-90s with 20 years of girls education and education generally.
Since Kabul fell to the Taliban nine days ago, at least 70,700 people have been airlifted.
Mr Biden said the evacuation had to come to an end soon because of an increasing threat from the Islamic State group in Afghanistan.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said 9,000 British nationals, Afghans who worked for British forces have been evacuated from Afghanistan so far.
Mr Raab said the Taliban group needs to be more “inclusive” and “moderate” at a conference yesterday.