Monday 2 August 2021

I reported to London that we were facing a new reality in Afghanistan. Unless there was a major turnaround on the battlefield, it was likely that the Taliban would soon control at least one major population centre, with maybe more to follow. If that happened the impact on the Republic’s already fragile political unity, military and public confidence would be significant. Although Kabul remained insulated from the intense fighting elsewhere in the country, this was very unlikely to last indefinitely. The Taliban were positioning to put the capital under intense pressure when they saw fit to do so