Alwaght- British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace claimed that the kingdom desperately tried to form a military coalition to stay in Afghanistan after US pullout but "nearly all of" NATO's member states" declined.
"We tried a number of like-minded nations. Some said they were keen, but their parliaments weren't. It became apparent pretty quickly that without the United States as the framework nation it had been, these options were closed off", Wallace told the Daily Mail on Sunday.
He said the UK government was "saddened, from the Prime Minister down, about all the blood and treasure that had been spent, that this was how it was ending ."
Speaking to the Mail, Wallace condemned the Washington's ‘rotten deal’ with the Taliban, signed last year, which was supposed to end more than 18 years of conflict in Afghanistan.
The Defense Secretary said Donald Trump’s deal with the Taliban early last year convinced the militants they had been victorious.
Under the deal signed by Trump and continued by President Joe Biden, the US and NATO pledged to withdraw within 14 months.
The Taliban agreed not to target Western troops and to keep Al Qaeda and other extremists out. The militants upheld their side of the bargain – but have waged war against Afghan forces.
Violence in Afghanistan has been on the rise since American and NATO troops began to withdraw from the country over the past several months, in sync with an agreement reached between the Taliban and the US in Doha in February 2020.