7 days ago
The Taliban had very few cards to play against Britain. Now that's changed
The leaders of unrecognised and isolated regimes do not have many cards to play at the world's negotiating tables. They might struggle to win the attention of bigger contestants.
Now, suddenly, the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan find themselves in possession of a card that may be more valuable than they could have imagined.
The database of 25,000 Afghans who were seeking asylum in Britain, mistakenly leaked and believed to be in the hands of the country's rulers, gives them an immediate source of leverage.
'After the reports were published in England, it became clear how significant this leak was,' a senior Taliban official in Kabul tells The Telegraph. 'No one thought the list would matter this much to British authorities or the public. But now, the order is to arrest as many individuals as possible to use them as a tool of diplomatic pressure against England.'
Along with most of the world, Britain does not recognise the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government. Four years after the fundamentalist movement seized power in 2021, only Russia has granted the Taliban official recognition, having struck them from its list of banned terrorist organisations.
As the Taliban marched into Afghanistan's capital, Britain closed its embassy in Kabul and evacuated the ambassador and all his staff. Today the UK's Mission to Afghanistan is based over 1,200 miles away in Qatar's capital, Doha.
The diplomats at this small post maintain what the Government calls 'limited and pragmatic' engagement with the Taliban when necessary.
But the Taliban hopes that such contact has suddenly become far more necessary. If the British Government cares about the fate of the 25,000 Afghans on the list, it will want the Taliban to refrain from harming them and perhaps cooperate with bringing them safely to the UK.
If so, the Taliban will surely demand a price. The official says that the regime's demands might range from 'pushing England to ease its restrictions on recognising the Emirate, to pressuring it not to block others from doing so'.
The Taliban already have one card to play. The Telegraph previously revealed that a British couple, Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, were arrested in Afghanistan not because they broke local laws but rather because the Taliban wanted to use them to place pressure on Britain.
The couple, who have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and hold joint British-Afghan citizenship, are being held separately in Kabul. Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, told The Telegraph earlier this year that she was increasingly concerned about their well-being.
With the British Government under additional political pressure to ensure the safety of the Afghans on the leaked list, the Taliban will be able to raise the stakes.
They will have every interest in talking up the threat to the 25,000 people named in the database. Hence Taliban officials claim to have been hunting for them ever since the leak occurred in 2022.
They say that a special unit has been established to locate them and border guards ordered to prevent their departure from Afghanistan.
'The border forces have had the list for the past few months and have orders not to let anyone leave,' said one Taliban official. 'These people are seen as traitors, and the plan has been to find as many of them as possible.'
The Taliban also claim to be tracking down the families of those named and keeping them under constant surveillance. 'We've been calling and visiting their family members to track them down,' said the Taliban official, adding that 'senior figures in the establishment in Kandahar are pressuring officials in Kabul to find them'.
How much of this is true and how much is calculated exaggeration remains uncertain. But the Taliban will play the new card in their hands for all it is worth. .
