A Foreign Policy in tatters
Asked whether he had full confidence in Raab, Johnson told reporters in Downing Street: “Absolutely.”
“And I can tell you that the whole of the Government has been working virtually around the clock to do what we can to sort it out, to deal with a situation that has been long in gestation and to make sure we get as many people back as possible,” he said.
The question came after it was reported that Foreign Office officials advised the Foreign Secretary on 13 August to call Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar – two days before the Taliban marched on Kabul – to arrange help for those who had supported British troops.
Boris Johnson was an appalling Foreign Secretary and has appointed an even worse one in Dominic Raab, as if they have a competition as to who can mess things up most.
Incompetence knows no bounds in Whitehall.
Today Raab told Sky News that he had been working on a plan since April regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Really????
Trump had brokered a deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops 18 months ago. The Foreign Office with British Allied troops on the ground for 20 years had not been consulted, just informed. 45 Generals told Johnson and Raab and the Defence Ministry to do something. The House of Lords produced a report last January, and Raab clearly packed his so called plan to Crete in a suitcase on his 7 day £40,000 holiday. Then returned back to work 2 days after Kabul had fallen. The humanitarian displacement debacle ensued, and the many lives that have suffered and been lost.
Such is the legacy, and Britain has Foreign Diplomats ignored by Foreign Governments, while Britain pursues Global Britain in self imposed isolation.
The Prime Minister has apparently appointed ten new trade envoys who will be charged with the thankless task of presenting the UK as an outward looking, dynamic economy at a time when supermarket shelves lie empty and its reputation on the international stage lies in tatters due to swingeing cuts to the international aid budget and a veritable leadership vacuum regarding the chaos in Afghanistan.
It was Theresa May, who appointed Johnson previously as foreign secretary. Yes, that Boris Johnson, the tousle-haired, barrel-bellied engineer of the UK's exit from the EU.
Newspapers and politicians around the world reacted to Boris Johnson's appointment in disbelief as UK foreign secretary.
Many were surprised, citing his history of faux pas including insulting the president of Turkey and commenting on the US president Obama’s ancestry.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a radio interview Mr Johnson was a liar with "his back against the wall".
One EU source told the BBC: "Everyone in the European Parliament thinks it's a bad joke and that the Brits have lost it."
Probably Johnson’s worse gaffe as Foreign Secretary was his remarks about a British-Iranian mother who is being held in prison in Iran. Johnson told a Commons committee when he was foreign secretary that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was “teaching people journalism” in Iran. Iranian officials cited his words as evidence that she had engaged in “propaganda against the regime”. The truth was she was on holiday visiting her parents.
Now Britain has more failed diplomacy, less statesmanship on the world stage with another nincompoop Dominic Raab. Britain is a laughing stock, so much for Boris Global Britain, Presidency of G7, and of Cop26.
“No one saw this coming”, Raab says of Taliban’s rapid Afghan takeover in less than 2 weeks, and 38m population subjected to authoritarian change, 50% of that population never knowing Taliban rule in their young lives hitherto.
So much for the Raab plan apparently worked on since April, accused of asleep at the wheel , asleep on a sunbed on a jolly.
So much for Boris Britain, yet another fine mess Boris & Co has got us into.
https://www.thejournal.ie/raab-resign-quit-afghanistan-5527326-Aug2021/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/no-one-saw-this-coming-raab-taliban-rapid-afghan-takeover
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-36792746
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-36790977
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/13/europe/boris-johnson-foreign-secretary-world-reacts/index.html
https://theconversation.com/boris-johnsons-record-as-foreign-secretary-is-stained-by-litany-of-blunders-and-poor-diplomacy-99649
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jun/30/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-richard-ratcliffe-boris-johnson-gaffes
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-iran-prison-husband-daughter-letter-a9226936.html
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/19532689.boris-johnsons-choice-brexit-trade-envoys-not-surprising-dysfunctional-uk/
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