UK Defence Secretary: Taliban are in Control, British Troops Won't Return to Afghanistan

On Sunday, Taliban* spokesperson Mohammad Naeem declared the war in Afghanistan "over", noting that the type of government and the form of the regime in the country will soon be announced.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has stated that "the Taliban are in control of Afghanistan" and that British troops "are not going back".

"I acknowledge that the Taliban are in control […]. I mean, you don't have to be a political scientist to spot that's where we're at", Wallace told Sky News on Monday. 

When asked whether the UK and NATO would return to Afghanistan, Wallace said: "That's not on the cards […] we're [not] going to go back".

Britain's Defence Secretary Ben Wallace

© REUTERS / Simon Dawson

The defence secretary added that said the military side of the Kabul Airport was secure, with the UK doing its best to evacuate British citizens and Afghans with links to Britain.

"Our target is […] about 1,200 to 1,500 exit [sic] a day in the capacity of our aeroplanes, and we'll keep that flow", he said.

When asked how it feels to see the Taliban flag fly over the former British Embassy building in Kabul, Wallace admitted that "symbolically, it's not what any of us wanted".

According to him, now is not the right time to contemplate on whether the Taliban should be recognised as the Afghan government.

"I think there is a lot of more to come before those decisions are made. The proof of the pudding will be obviously in their actions rather than their rhetoric", Wallace stressed.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, for his part, told reporters on Sunday that there will be a "new government" in Afghanistan, but urged "likeminded" countries not to recognise it "prematurely".

Asked whether he expected Afghanistan to fall to the Taliban so quickly, Johnson said: "I think it's fair to say that the US decision to pull out has accelerated things".

Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021.

© AP Photo / Zabi Karimi

The statement comes after Taliban spokesperson Mohammad Naeem told Al-Jazeera on Sunday that the war in Afghanistan is "over", and that the form of the regime in the country will soon be made clear.

He also called on foreign diplomatic missions to be "in complete confidence" that there is no danger for them in Afghanistan, as the "forces of the Islamic Emirate are tasked with maintaining security in Kabul and other cities in the country".

The PM added it was not in the interests of the Afghan people for their country to "lapse back into the pre-2001 state", referring to the Taliban's rule before the US-led invasion in the early 2000s. 

Taliban militants entered Kabul on 15 August without a fight, earlier seizing a whole array of Afghanistan's provincial capitals, amid the ongoing US and NATO exit from the country.

*The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries