UK ex-leader calls hasty Afghan exit 'stupid'

A former prime minister of the United Kingdom and grandee of the ruling Conservative Party has sharply criticized the decision to hastily pull Western troops from Afghanistan.

John Major, who led the UK from 1990 to 1997 and was a member of Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s, said at The Financial Times' FT Weekend Festival on Saturday that the decision to leave Afghanistan was "strategically very stupid" and "morally incomprehensible".

Major, who stood down as a lawmaker in 2001, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that the withdrawal was further evidence of the United States' increasingly isolationist stance.

"I think we were wrong to leave Afghanistan, we were wrong morally but also wrong practically," he said.

He said the exit came about "abruptly", and will be seen as a "stain on the reputation of the West" for a lifetime.

Major also slammed Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government for its "shameful" failure to rescue all locally hired workers who supported the UK in Afghanistan.

The Independent noted the UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has just returned from an emergency diplomatic tour to Qatar and Pakistan, where it was believed he was trying to secure the safe passage of those people deemed "left behind".

Major's comments follow those of another former UK prime minister, Tony Blair, who said earlier the West was wrong to pull its troops out without first ensuring Afghan stability.

Blair, a Labour Party politician, was Britain's leader in 2001 when the US-led invasion began with the goal of toppling the Taliban government.

Blair said the sudden withdrawal was "imbecilic" and would have had "every jihadist group around the world cheering".

The Guardian noted on Sunday that senior Conservative Party lawmaker Tobias Ellwood has also joined the chorus of criticism. Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons select committee on defense, wrote in The Observer newspaper that an unseemly and unprofessional row has now broken out between the UK's Foreign Office and its Ministry of Defence about where the fault lies for the chaotic end of the UK's presence in Afghanistan.

He said the disarray has exposed the weakness of the UK as a global player. "We've lost the passion and the art of leadership, and have caused further reputational damage in the unattractive blame game over Afghanistan that has played out so publicly," he wrote. "This unseemly, unprofessional squabbling must stop."

Johnson was expected to address lawmakers on Monday about Britain's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

On the political front, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Monday that a new Afghan government will be announced in the next few days, after confirming the group has taken over Panjshir, the only province that had remained out of Taliban's control.

Xinhua and agencies contributed to this story.