UK: Despite summons, Foreign Office chief did not return from leave when Kabul collapsed

According to the newspaper, a senior Downing Street official on Friday advised the foreign minister to return, but Raab would then “make up” the prime minister, who agreed to stay in the five-star tourist destination until Sunday night. Rapp landed in the UK at 1:40 am on Sunday, a few hours after the Taliban occupied Kabul.

In addition, as revealed by Sky News on Saturday, the Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of the South Asia region was also on vacation at that time, namely Afghanistan, Tariq Ahmed. Although he was in contact with ministry officials, he was not asked to contact the Afghan foreign minister about the evacuation of British Afghan military personnel. Although he had regular contacts with the head of Afghan diplomacy.

Dominic Raab’s troubles began when the Daily Mail revealed on Thursday that while on vacation he had not called the Afghan foreign minister to facilitate the evacuation of Afghans, despite State Department officials insisting that Raab should do so in person rather than authorizing someone to do so. . different. The State Department initially made it clear that Raab was busy with other matters and that the issue of that phone was passed to another deputy minister, Zack Goldsmith, but the Daily Mail said on Friday that no one eventually called.

After the Daily Mail reported, the opposition and some media outlets began calling for Raab’s resignation or his resignation, but Johnson assured him on Friday that he fully trusted him. The pressure on the foreign minister and the prime minister will increase even more after the information published by the Times.

“Rapp was asked to come back on Friday. And on Sunday, there was a sense of disbelief among all the senior officials at No. 10 (10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s office) that he wasn’t there. It seemed to make Boris go after how a senior government official said, citing A senior government official was quoted by the newspaper as saying that a senior government official asked him to return.

Dominic Raab has served as UK Foreign Secretary since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019. Prior to that, he was Brexit Secretary in Theresa May’s government from July to November 2018.