Britain and other US allies have offered muted criticism of the Biden administration's firm 31 August deadline for evacuations from Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Kabul government's sudden collapse. At the same time, NATO has admitted that the alliance could not stay deployed in the war-torn country without help from the US behemoth.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to have taken a dig at London's Washington allies on Sunday in an address dedicated to the end of the UK's military operations in Afghanistan.
“It is at the darkest and most difficult moments that the Armed Forces of this country have always performed their greatest and most astonishing feats. As I speak, Sir Laurie Bristow, Her Majesty's Ambassador, has finally boarded one of the very last flights from Kabul. All remaining soldiers, diplomats and civil servants have now left, it's the culmination of a mission unlike anything we've seen in our lifetimes,” Johnson said, in a video address from 10 Downing Street on Sunday.
Praising British troops and officials, who he said had “worked round the clock to a remorseless deadline in harrowing conditions,” Johnson stressed that these individuals had “expended all the patience and care and thought they possess to help people in fear for their lives,” and carried on working even in the aftermath of Thursday's terrorist attack on the airport.
Johnson said the UK would consider diplomatic recognition for the Taliban if they…
