UK says al-Qaeda could come back to Afghanistan

Britain’s defence minister Friday expressed raised concerns over situation in Afghanistan, stating that Afghanistan was spiralling towards a “failed state.”

In an interview with Sky news agency, UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace stated that Afghanistan could become a breeding ground for militants such as al Qaeda which would probably come back.

“I’m absolutely worried that failed states are breeding grounds for those types of people,” Ben Wallace told the Sky when asked about Afghanistan.

“Al Qaeda will probably come back,” he noted.

Wallace said that Afghanistan’s second biggest city of Kandahar and the town of Lashkar Gah was “pretty much now in the hands of the Taliban.”

This comes after the participants of the Doha meeting on Afghanistan have called on the warring parties to accelerate efforts to reach a political settlement and a comprehensive ceasefire, amid the advance of the Taliban militants towards Provincial capitals.

The Afghan government and the Taliban delegations and special representatives of UN, US, UK, EU, China, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Pakistan, Germany, Norway, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and India participated the meeting.

The participants issued a joint statement at the end of the meeting on Thursday.

According to the statement, all participants agreed on the importance of accelerating the Afghan peace process and negotiating “concrete proposal from both sides.

The International community also called for an immediate cessation of violence and attacks on the Provincial capitals.

Meanwhile, the participants reiterated that the International community will not recognize any government in Afghanistan that imposed by a military takeover.