United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres led an emergency session of the UN Security Council amid “chilling” reports from the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.
British troops are racing against the clock to get people out of Afghanistan following the dramatic fall of the Western-backed government amid a rapid advance across the country by the Taliban.
Last week, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced Up to 600 UK troops are to be deployed in Afghanistan to help Britons leave the country.
In an emergency session of the UN Security Council on the situation in Afghanistan, Mr Guterres urged the Taliban to uphold human rights, especially for women and girls.
He told the meeting: “We are receiving chilling reports of severe restrictions on human rights throughout the country.
“I am particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan, who fear a return to the darkest days.
“The international community must unite to make sure that Afghanistan is never again used as a platform or safe haven for terrorist organisations.”
He added: “Afghans are a proud people with a rich cultural heritage. They have known generations of war and hardship. They deserve our full support. The following days will be pivotal, the world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday there would be “significant numbers flying out day by day” and that the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy was “open-ended”.
He said the British ambassador, Sir Laurie Bristow, was working from the airport in Kabul alongside Home Office staff, diplomatic workers, and the armed services, to process visas.
He told a Westminster briefing: “We will continue to do everything we can, our offer is open-ended, we haven’t put an end date on that and we will continue to do all we can including – as the Defence Secretary said – should individuals manage to get to other countries and be brought in from those other countries.”
US President Joe Biden has said he will make a statement about the situation in Afghanistan at 3.45pm eastern time (8.45pm BST).
In a tweet, Mr Biden said: “I will be addressing the nation on Afghanistan at 3.45pm ET today.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article