Top UK lawmaker says Britain should reopen embassy in Kabul and work with IEA

Britain should reopen its embassy in Kabul and start negotiating with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), a senior member of the UK’s parliament has said.

Tobias Ellwood, who is the chairman of the defence select committee in the UK parliament, said he is “no Taliban-appeaser” but it is time to start working with the Afghan government in order to prevent the country entering another cycle of “instability, terrorism and mass migration,” Telegraph reported.

Ellwood, who has served in the British army, said a more pragmatic strategy is needed by the West if things are to improve in Afghanistan.

It is almost two years since NATO withdrew from Afghanistan and the IEA took over the country, but no country has recognized the government.

Ellwood, who has just returned from a visit Afghanistan, said he has witnessed real progress and believes it is now time to start negotiating with the IEA, no matter how unpalatable that might seem.

He said Afghanistan is currently more peaceful than it has been since the 1970s and despite the ban, women are being allowed to return to work because the economy demanded it.

“I recognise their (IEA’s) policies will never align with our ideals. But I witnessed unreported compromises the war-exhausted nation is currently willing to accept,” Ellwood said.

The MP stressed that Afghanistan remains extremely fragile with widespread food shortages and half of the country’s nine million children not having access to school.

But he said engagement is the only way to have a hand in helping to shape the future.

“If the West continues to sulk we could be making another blunder which pushes the nation to a fiscal cliff, potentially igniting another cycle of instability, terrorism and mass migration,” he said.

“A more pragmatic strategy is necessary. The Taliban’s (IEA) restrictions on women’s rights may well serve as a negotiation tool for shared understanding.

“But such a possibility will remain unknown until we wake up. The first step is reopening our embassy. The second is to get real,” Ellwood said.