Afghanistan affairs minister was on vacation with the fall of Kabul, Sky News understands | politics news

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Sky News has learned that the Minister of Afghanistan Affairs was on vacation last week with the fall of Kabul.

Lord Tariq Ahmed of Wimbledon, the minister of state directly responsible for South Asia, was on leave until Sunday, the day the Taliban marched into the Afghan capital.

The conservative fellow was in office for four years. He was in regular contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar over the past year as peace talks were underway in Doha between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Photo: Lord Ahmed (right) has been in regular contact with Afghan Foreign Minister Muhammad Hanif Atmar since taking office in 2017.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has faced calls to resign for failing to place a phone call with Mr Atmar on Friday, while on vacation in Crete, which critics say could have been used to solicit help from Afghan interpreters.

But it is understood that while Lord Ahmed was on a residence in the UK and in contact with officials as the Afghan crisis rapidly worsened, he was not asked to make a call to Mr Atmar on Friday, nor was he told.

It is delegated to Lord Goldsmith – who covers the Pacific and divides his time with the Department of Environment.

The State Department confirmed that the call never occurred, which led to heavy criticism.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth Office and Development (FCDO) said: “Lord Ahmed has been working closely with the Foreign Secretary and the FCDO team during the response to events in Afghanistan, including engagement with international partners.”

Image: There have been calls for Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to resign

A source said Lord Ahmed has returned to his office since Monday to work on the evacuation.

It is known that he spent part of his vacation working on issues raised by parliamentarians trapped in Afghanistan.

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‘Absolutely horrific’: ‘Crushed’ people at Kabul airport

Speaking in the House of Lords on Wednesday – which took place at the same time as the House of Commons debate – he said he was doing everything in his power to bring British nationals back.

A government source told Sky News that contingency plans for the evacuation – known as Operation Tapping – had been in place for months, and that Afghanistan “has been teetering on the edge for months, and no one knew if it would come now or in a few months’ time”.

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Cabinet colleagues defended Mr. Raab, saying the Afghan government was “melting faster than the ice” and that the call would have made little difference.

Conservatives privately criticized the State Department’s response, with one minister calling it a “chaos”. But some in the government say the secretary of state is “working hard” and has been “a deterrent to MPs getting angry at the Americans”.

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