UK PM says group has changed but urges it to keep promise to prevent terrorism Foreign secretary: ‘Clear difference’ between Taliban and Daesh or Al-Qaeda LONDON: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he believes the Taliban has changed since it was ousted from power by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, in a sign that the government’s position to the group is softening. It came after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab sought to distance the Taliban from terrorist groups operating in the region and posing a threat to Western nations, saying there is a “clear difference” between them and Daesh-Khorasan or Al-Qaeda. Speaking to the House of Commons on Monday, Johnson said he believes it is imperative for the West to “put maximum pressure” on more moderate Taliban members to gain the “upper hand” over the group’s “more retrograde elements.” ad He was updating Parliament on the UK withdrawal from Afghanistan and the process of resettling refugees from the country. “On Saturday, we mark the 20th anniversary of the reason why we went into Afghanistan in the first place: The terrorist attacks on the US which claimed 2,977 lives, including those of 67 Britons,” he said. “If anyone is tempted to say that we’ve achieved nothing in that country — or still tempted to say that we’ve achieved nothing in that country in 20 years — tell them that our armed forces and those of our allies enabled 3.6 million girls to go to school, tell them that this country and the Western world were protected from Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan throughout that period, and tell them that we’ve just mounted the biggest humanitarian airlift in recent history.” Johnson said while he has received no information regarding an increased terrorist threat level to the UK following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Britain will continue to hold the group to account over its pledges not to allow Afghanistan to become a haven for terrorism once again. This came after emails emerged suggesting that Taliban members have tried to gain access to Britain via the UK’s Afghan resettlement scheme, which is set to take in 20,000 people over the next five years. Ads by optAd360 “What we need to do is to make sure that those elements of the Taliban who are different — and I believe different from the Taliban of 1996 — are encouraged and we put the maximum pressure on them not to allow the more retrograde elements to have the upper hand, and that’s what this government and other governments around the world are going to do,” Johnson said. “Let me say to anyone to whom we’ve made commitments — and who is in Afghanistan — we’re working urgently with our friends in the region to secure safe passage and as soon as routes are available, we’ll do everything possible to help you.”