British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defied a Downing Street order last week to return from his holiday in the Mediterranean to grapple with the events in Afghanistan, the Daily Mail has cited unnamed sources as saying.
The sources claimed that on 13 August – two days before Taliban militants captured Kabul - a senior No.10 official told Raab that he should return to London immediately because the situation in the Afghan capital was taking a turn for the worse.
According to the insiders, there was "much gnashing of teeth" after the foreign secretary postponed his return until the early hours of Monday morning.
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) poses with Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab as he arrives at the G7 foreign ministers meeting in London on May 5, 2021
© AFP 2023 / BEN STANSALL
"There is no doubt that Raab was told to come back on that Friday [13 August]. There was then a significant amount of surprise when he appeared on the COBRA [Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms meeting] on the Sunday down the line from Crete. He must have nobbled Boris [Johnson] and asked for permission to finish his holiday", the sources argued.
The claims were rejected by a close Raab ally who reportedly insisted that senior government officials had not "ordered" the foreign secretary to return to London last Friday.
"The suggestion was that he should make plans to come back. They said that if things get worse then he needed to be ready to come back at a moment's notice. He then talked it through with the PM and it was agreed that he would came back on Sunday", the ally asserted.
They also insisted reports that Raab had spent most of last Sunday on the beach were "just not true", adding, "he based his family on the beach in a gazebo precisely so that he could go back and work at the hotel, while checking in on them every now and again".
This came as the foreign secretary told the Daily Mail on Sunday about strong support from Tory members, rejecting allegations that he had been pressured to step down.
"I've not heard any of my Conservative colleagues call for me to resign, but I have had a wave of support. There is no doubt that, like all countries, there is a measure of surprise at the rapidity of the Taliban takeover. […] But as the foreign secretary travelling around the world, whether I am on leave or I'm travelling for work purposes, I am always set up to be able to grip things", Raab said.
Raab Slammed Over Staying on Holiday Amid Afghan Crisis
He spoke after former UK Defence Secretary and NATO Secretary General George Robertson said it is "stunning" that Raab "would stay on holiday as our [UK] mission in Afghanistan disintegrated". According to the ex-NATO chief, "the horrors unfolding with every minute demand focused attention from the top".
"The fact that the foreign secretary is missing in action shows graphically the lack of purpose in our government's attitude to what we set out to do twenty years ago. As secretary general of NATO on 9/11 and the person who announced the invoking of Article 5, the self-defence clause in the North Atlantic Treaty, I am sickened by the prospect of the twentieth anniversary being marked by the Taliban back in control of Afghanistan", Robertson stated.
In this Aug. 19, 2021 file photo, Taliban fighters display their flag on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan. When U.S. President Joe Biden took office early this year, Western allies were falling over themselves to welcome and praise him and hail a new era in trans-Atlantic cooperation.
© AP Photo / Rahmat Gul
He was echoed by UK Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy who argued that "for the foreign secretary to go AWOL during an international crisis of this magnitude is nothing short of shameful".
The remarks followed reports that Raab along with Prime Minister Johnson were on holiday at the same time, just a few hours before the Taliban captured Kabul on 15 August, something that The Mirror claimed suggested "the scale at which Johnson and Raab were caught off-guard" in terms of the Taliban's rapid offensive on the Afghan capital.
Last Sunday, the militant group wrapped up their takeover of the nation by seizing Kabul and declaring the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan". President Ashraf Ghani left the country for the United Arab Emirates to prevent what he described as bloodshed if the militants had to fight for the city. He rejected accusations that he left the country with a huge sum of money, slamming it as a "baseless lie".
"These accusations were all unsubstantiated and untrue, and I refuse them. I reject them, with strong words", Ghani added.
* The Taliban is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.