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A senior Conservative MP has been criticised for saying Afghanistan has been “transformed” beneath the Taliban.
In a video posted from the nation on Monday, former defence minister Tobias Ellwood mentioned corruption was falling and safety had “vastly improved”.
Fellow Tory Mark Francois referred to as the video “bizarre”, while former Tory chief Sir Iain Duncan Smith mentioned it was not “welcome”.
Downing Street mentioned it disagreed with Mr Ellwood’s evaluation.
But Mr Ellwood defended his feedback, saying stability within the nation was on a “different level” than throughout instances of battle.
In a BBC News interview, he added that it was time for the UK to determine diplomatic ties with the Taliban fairly than “shouting from afar”.
British diplomatic and embassy workers have been withdrawn after the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of the nation after Western troops pulled out.
Mr Ellwood, who chairs the Commons defence choose committee, tweeted his video throughout a visit to Helmand province with a landmine clearance charity.
The Bournemouth East MP mentioned Afghanistan was “a country transformed,” with photo voltaic panels beginning to seem “everywhere” while the nation’s opium commerce “all but disappeared”.
“This war-wary nation is for the moment accepting a more authoritarian leadership in exchange for stability,” he added, while calling for the West to “re-engage” diplomatically.
Reopening the British embassy, he added, could be a strategy to “incrementally” encourage “progressive changes” in areas like ladies’ training and rights for feminine employees.
However, within the Commons on Tuesday, Sir Iain mentioned the video was “not a very welcome statement to have made” given the “persecutions that have taken place in Afghanistan”.
‘Shone a lightweight’
Mr Francois, who additionally sits on the defence committee, mentioned the video “made no mention of the fact that the Taliban is still attempting to identify and kill Afghan citizens who helped our armed forces, or of the fact that young girls in Afghanistan do not even have the right to go to school”.
Mr Ellwood, whose brother was killed by Islamists within the 2002 Bali bombings, mentioned he needed to make sure terrorism doesn’t “flourish” in Afghanistan.
Speaking to BBC News, he mentioned he understood his feedback would “cause waves”, however he was happy he had “shone a light on a country that we ran away from”.
“The current strategy of us shouting from afar to try and effect the agenda in Afghanistan is not working,” he mentioned, including that he was talking an “an individual MP”.
“We need to engage more directly, more robustly, and that can be done if we open up the [British] embassy”.
