West could face another 9/11 if it abandons Afghanistan again, says Pakistan security adviser
Pakistan’s national security adviser has suggested the West faces another 9/11 if it abandons Afghanistan for a second time.
Dr Moeed Yusuf issued the stark warning as the international coalition struggles to get its remaining troops out of the country, after an ignominious defeat to the Taliban.
Abandoning the country could also cause a mass wave of refugees, Dr Yusuf told Sky News.
Pakistan and Taliban flags are seen on their respective sides at a border crossing point in Chaman, Pakistan
When the Soviets withdrew in 1989 the West turned its back on the region, he said, and allowed it to become a safe haven for terrorists.
Pakistan has not yet recognised the Taliban but is urging the international community to “engage” to avoid a security vacuum.
Dr Yusuf said now is the time for the world to listen and come together to avoid the mistakes of the past.
“If there’s no money in Afghanistan, if there’s no governance, if ISIS-K and al Qaeda and others take root, what do you think will happen?
Western leaders may have no option but to accept the Taliban as the new leaders of Afghanistan Pic: AP
“And by the way let me also tell you, this will not be constrained to the region. I read somewhere, I think one statement came out, that the migration problem should be limited to the region, it won’t.
“Migrants will flow, terrorism will flow and none of us want that so let’s not make that mistake again.
“The dangers of abandonment, which came about in the 1990s, there was a breakdown of law and order, there was a breakdown of security, there were international terrorists who took route, there was an economic crisis, there was a governance problem and at the end of the day there was 911.”
There hasn’t yet been a huge flood of refugees out of the country, but hundreds of thousands have been internally displaced and the dangers are already there for that humanitarian situation to worsen rapidly.
Afghan refugees arriving in Virginia, US after fleeing their homeland Pic: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Thursday’s horrific attack by ISIS Khorasan at the airport illustrates what is at stake.
Pakistan’s government claims by working with the Taliban rather than isolating them they can maintain security in the country and prevent Afghanistan from descending into civil war as it did in the past.
Islamabad is on the front foot of a PR blitz trying to make its case at a time when many western capitals see it as one of the reasons the nation building project failed over the last 20 years.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sky’s Adam Parsons reports from Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where thousands of Afghan refugees are waiting to be flown to the US to start new lives
The country stands accused of playing a “double game” – appearing as a staunch ally while at the same time sponsoring the militant group and providing sanctuary and support.
The reason for this duplicity, it’s claimed, is that Pakistan has an interest in seeing Islamist rulers – not a democratic government – in Kabul as a way of increasing strategic depth and influence in its perpetual fight against its powerful neighbour India to the east.
But the Pakistani government claims these accusations are “not based in reality” and it is being used as a “scapegoat” for the failures and miscalculations of others.
The argument it makes is that there was never a military solution to Afghanistan in the first place and such a victory was therefore illusory.
Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in Kabul. Pic: AP
It also claims that after Afghanistan it is the biggest victim of the so called war on terror with as many as 80,000 dead and two million people internally displaced.
And the reality is that the West will most likely have to recognise the new bearded rulers in Kabul.
In microcosm we have already seen that play out with international forces humiliatingly having to coordinate with the group during the airlift.
And then there is the bigger question – engage with the Taliban, or not to stop groups like ISIS from becoming stronger in the region?
Both are extreme Sunni Islamist militants but there is great enmity between them.
Pakistan certainly believes that our enemy of 20 years may, in that fight, turn out to be our friend.
Hundreds of police are hunting armed men who attacked a prison van in France – with a convict reportedly nicknamed “The Fly” escaping.
Two male prison officers were shot dead and three others seriously injured during the ambush on a motorway in Incarville, northwest France, at around 9am.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, France’s justice minister, said one of the officers leaves behind a wife who was five months pregnant, while the other was a 21-year-old father-of-two.
He said two of those injured are in a critical condition after Tuesday’s ambush.
The officers were transporting convict Mohamed Amra, 30, when they came under heavy fire, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
CCTV shows car smash into prison van
Footage shows a black car driving into the front of a white van, and later two armed men patrolling near a tollbooth on the A154 motorway.
Several men used two vehicles to target the van – with one later found burnt-out, a police source told French news agency AFP.
Mohamed Amra’s nickname is said to be ‘The Fly’, according to French media
Amra had been serving an 18-month sentence for “aggravated thefts” in the suburbs of Evreux, northwest France, according to BFM TV.
The French broadcaster said his nickname is “The Fly”.
Police sources also said Amra was involved in drug dealing, suspected of ordering a murder in Marseille, and had ties to the city’s powerful “Blacks” gang.
He had reportedly appeared before a judge in Rouen on Tuesday morning, accused of attempted homicide.
The attack on the van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, according to reports in France.
Footage shows the aftermath of a collision
A prison source told Le Parisien that the escaped inmate had tried to saw the bars off his cell two days ago.
He had reportedly been placed in solitary confinement and his surveillance level raised after the escape attempt.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Amra was a “particularly monitored detainee” while in prison.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said “several hundred police officers” had been deployed to “find these criminals”.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X: “This morning’s attack, which cost the lives of prison officers, is a shock to us all.
“The Nation stands alongside the families, the injured and their colleagues.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime so that justice can be done in the name of the French people. We will be intractable.”
“Everything, I mean everything, will be done to find the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” added justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti.
“These are people for whom life weighs nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged, and they will be punished according to the crime they committed.”
World
Georgia: Protesters and riot police face off outside Tbilisi parliament after divisive ‘foreign agents’ bill passes
Protesters have smashed barriers at Georgia’s parliament after it approved a divisive “foreign agents” bill.
Riot police used tear gas and sprayed crowds with water cannon as they entered the grounds of the Georgian parliament in the capital Tbilisi.
Sky’s international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn, who is covering the protests in Tbilisi, said there was a “febrile atmosphere” and a “real sense anger, frustration and massive disappointment” that MPs voted for the bill.
Follow live: Riot police move in on Georgia protesters
Hundreds of law enforcement officers guarded parliament. Pic: Reuters
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Protesters break through parliament barricades
The legislation is seen by some as threatening press and civic freedoms and there are concerns it’s modelled on laws used by President Vladimir Putin in neighbouring Russia.
The proposed law would require media and non-governmental organisations and other non-profit groups to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of funding from abroad.
Demonstrations have engulfed Georgia for weeks ahead of the bill’s final reading on Tuesday.
Police used a spray to keep back the crowds. Pic: AP
Pic: David Mdzinarishvili/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Critics also see it as a threat to the country’s aspirations to join the European Union.
The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests.
Pic: Reuters
Authorities were seen detaining protesters near the parliament building. Pic: Reuters
Opponents have denounced the bill as “the Russian law” because Moscow uses similar legislation to stigmatise independent news media and organisations critical of the Kremlin.
Read more:
What is the ‘Russian law’ that has Georgians out on the streets?
Georgian opposition politician beaten by hooded thugs
‘Putin’s puppet’: Who is billionaire behind Georgia unrest?
A brawl erupted in the parliament as MPs were debating the bill on Tuesday.
Georgian Dream MP Dimitry Samkharadze was seen charging towards Levan Khabeishvili, the chairman of main opposition party United National Movement, after Mr Khabeishvili accused him of organising mobs to beat up opposition supporters.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Fighting in Georgia’s parliament
‘Absolutely insane’
Former Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili called the bill a “joke” and a “replica” of one introduced by Vladimir Putin to “control his own society” in Russia.
He said the Georgian people would “not fall under that mistake” and that protesters were standing “firm, calm, peaceful and for freedom”.
“We will not let them prevail. We will overcome,” he told Sky News.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Protesters angry after ‘Russian law’ passes
A protester said it was “absolutely insane that a country like Georgia has accepted this bill as it’s a complete violation for our future”.
The medical student said the bill “makes us more far away from Europe and the rest of the world”, while bringing Georgia closer to the Russian government.
Another protester outside parliament said: “Our government is a Russian government, we don’t want Russia, Russia is never the way, I’m Georgian and therefore I am European.”
One demonstrator said they had been trying to protest “peacefully” but were now “feeling anger, pain and disappointment that again in our history there is a government that goes against our wishes”.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The president of the European Parliament has shown support for the Georgian people in a post on social media.
“Tbilisi, we hear you! We see you!” Roberta Metsola said.
Alex Scrivener, director of the Democratic Security Institute, said there was time for the law to be turned around.
He told Sky News: “The law passing isn’t the end of the vote.
“The president of Georgia who is aligned with the protesters can veto legislation and that buys us time.”
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has said she will veto it but her decision can be overridden by another vote in parliament, controlled by the ruling party and its allies.
Two prison officers have been killed after an attack on a convoy carrying an inmate – with the convict reportedly on the run.
Three other people are seriously injured after the reported “ramming car attack” on a motorway in Incarville in the northwestern France region of Eure.
Footage from the scene shows two hooded men with firearms and a prison van which appears to have been in a collision with a black vehicle.
Several men used two vehicles to target the convoy, a police source has told the French news agency AFP.
The escaped detainee is a man named Mohamed who was convicted of “burglary theft” and is nicknamed “The Fly”, according to Le Parisien.
He had appeared before a judge in Rouen this morning accused of attempted homicide, BFM TV reports.
The attack on the prison van took place while he was being transported back to prison in Evreux, the French broadcaster adds.
The escaped prisoner fled with those who attacked the convoy on Tuesday, Le Parisien reports.
One of the vehicles used to target the convoy was found burned-out in a location which was not specified by the police source who spoke to AFP.
The prison convoy was targeted at a tollbooth on the A154 motorway at about 11am local time, according to reports.
French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti posted on X: “A prison convoy was attacked in Eure. Two of our prison officers have died, three are seriously injured.
“All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and their colleagues.”
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment12 months agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports1 month agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports7 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Environment1 year agoTesla advances Powerwall pilot project with German electric company