London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

UK and Taliban in talks over evacuations and terrorism prevention

UK and Taliban in talks over evacuations and terrorism prevention

Intelligence chief seeks assurances over Afghan helpers and that country will not become terrorist base

One of the UK’s most senior intelligence chiefs has held talks with Taliban leaders to negotiate safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals and Afghans who worked with UK forces, and to seek assurances that the country will not become a base for international terrorists.

Sir Simon Gass, the chair of the joint intelligence committee, travelled to Doha in Qatar a few days ago, where most of the Taliban’s exiled leadership is based, to talk to Afghanistan’s new rulers as UK, US and other western troops pulled out.

The discussions with the group that the UK and its allies spent 20 years fighting are part of a wider British and western effort to reach understandings with the Taliban that could eventually lead to diplomatic recognition.

Sir Simon Gass, chair of the joint intelligence committee, has travelled to Doha in Qatar to talk to the Taliban.


But there is an immediate emphasis in the back-channel discussions on trying to allow Afghans who want to come to the UK safe passage to neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Thousands of Afghans listed as at-risk by the Foreign Office could not be picked up when the emergency airlift ended over the weekend. A further 1,000 Afghan interpreters and their family members are stuck in the country, with an entitlement to resettle in the UK.

Gass has been named by Boris Johnson as his special representative for Afghan transition, tasked with leading the potentially fraught negotiations, which come at a time when the UN has accused the Taliban of engaging in summary executions of former Afghan soldiers and others who worked with the ousted government.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister’s special representative, Simon Gass, has travelled to Doha and is meeting with senior Taliban representatives to underline the importance of safe passage out of Afghanistan for British nationals, and those Afghans who have worked with us over the past 20 years.”

The UK is desperate to avoid Afghanistan becoming a base for international terrorism, which according to British sources is one of the topics under discussion in the meetings. While the local Islamic State affiliate, ISKP, claimed responsibility for a terror attack that killed nearly 200 people at the airport on Thursday, the group is hostile to the Taliban and does not have the capability to strike abroad.

However, British security agencies are concerned that the Taliban could allow jihadist groups to set up training camps similar to those run by al-Qaida before September 11.

Back-channel conversations involving intelligence chiefs talking to former or even current enemies are nothing new. The CIA chief, William Burns, met the Taliban’s de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar over a week ago to discuss the final exit of the US from the country, at the end of the 20-year war.

The UK fought alongside the US in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. A total of 457 British personnel died in the conflict fighting Taliban soldiers, many in bitter fighting in the southern province of Helmand.

Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 has also been active during the crisis, with Pakistani media reporting that Sir Richard Moore, the agency’s head, met Pakistan’s chief of army staff, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, last week to discuss intelligence and defence collaboration after the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Concerns among MPs remain high about the safety of people trapped there who have contacted people in the UK asking for help with resettlement. Earlier on Tuesday in a briefing for MPs the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said that Afghans should “use their judgment” in deciding whether to flee to the border.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
×