parts of the afghan security forces fought bravely. but they were unable to secure the country. because ultimately, the afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the taliban and to achieve a peaceful solution that afghans desperately wanted. there is a failure of afghan leadership led to the tragedy we are witnessing today. this failure of afghan leadership. at the same time, we need to have an honest clear eyed assessment of nato s own engagement in afghanistan. despite our considerable investment and a sacrifice over two decades, the collapse was swift and sudden. there are many lessons to be learned. but we should also recognise the gains we should also recognise the gains we have made. nato allies and
and i think what will emerge as the dominant position with the taliban will also be the interaction between the taliban and the outside, so within afghanistan, other groups and people will deal with the telephone, and of course international actors. the question, i suppose, the time that they have left outside of afghanistan, the previous government had not, they had lived almost exclusively inside the country, to what extent that might have moderated some of their positions. it s difficult to know exactly how moderate they are in terms of their ideological leaning. they don t talk much about it, but even internally, other people, sometimes they re not
is currently in dubai. she s trying to get into afghanistan. those heartbreaking, heart stopping images yesterday, the chaos, the panic at kabul international airport will live long in memory and will be seared in history, notjust as a lesson forafghanistan, but forall international engagement, and certainly for the us looking forward. and that kind of panic we saw on the airfield yesterday hasn t gone away, even though it s much calmer, we re told, at the airport today with the military evacuation flights taking off today, the taliban at the gates of kabul of kabul and, at the gates of kabul and, yes, neighborhood by neighborhood, the taliban are now patrolling and literally afghan residents who are cautiously coming out of their homes are coming face to face with their new taliban protectors, the new government in afghanistan. and we are getting reports that the deputy leader of the taliban, the chief negotiator, mullah baradar, is on his way from the gulf state of qatar, where the t
650 afghans crammed on board. in the city, an uneasy, watchful calm, taliban fighters highly visible as they assert their authority. and raise theirflag. for now, the city appears to be functioning. those who have chosen to stay or have no choice, wondering what taliban rule will be like. let s see what afghanistan brings, i want to stay here, i want to fight for my students, i want to fight for our vision of afghanistan and i know things are never going to be the same any more, it sjust, i have to be here. in herat, which fell to the taliban last week, some things have not changed. schoolgirls were at their desks today, scenes unthinkable when the taliban last ruled the country. my hope is that we will continue to resist any possible regression and any possible deprivation,
military flight this morning. after yesterday s chaos, planes are once again leaving. earlier, france sent a plane to evacuate its citizens and their afghan colleagues. this vast international operation now gathering pace. the man running the british operation says he expects to bring out as many as 7000 people. how long have we got to do it? we don t really know and so every day, we are working as hard as we can to put as many forward into this pipeline as we possibly can. clearly, there is a dynamic political situation running across the city, we make no assumptions about that, other than that we really can t afford to pause and wait. and this is what it looks like for some. this extraordinary image from an american military flight on sunday. 650 afghans crammed on board. in the city, an uneasy, watchful calm, taliban fighters highly visible as they assert their authority and raise their flag.