'Country Boys With Code of Honour': UK Army Chief Says Taliban Could be Different This Time, Must 'Wait & See'

Britain’s chief of defence staff General Nick Carter has denied calling Taliban as an enemy and claimed that the insurgent groups want an Afghanistan which is inclusive. Carter said the Taliban were essentially “country boys” who lived by the so called “Pashtunwali”, the traditional tribal way of life and code of conduct of the Pashtun people.

“I think you have to be very careful using the word enemy. I think people need to understand who Taliban actually are. They are a disparate collection of tribes people… They are country boys and the plain fact is they happen to live by a code of honour which has been their standard for many years. They want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all,” Chief of defence staff told Sky News on Wednesday.

On the question of women rights and Taliban’s governance in the past, he added that there is a need to listen to what they are saying at the moment and listen to the facts on ground.

Nick Carter, Britain’s chief of the defence staff, said he was in contact with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai who Carter said would meet the Taliban on Wednesday.

He also said that the international community should be patient, and give the Taliban time “to show their credentials”.

“We have to be patient, we have to hold our nerve and we have to give them the space to form a government and we have to give them the space to show their credentials,” Carter told in another interview to BBC.

“It may be that this Taliban is a different Taliban to the one that people remember from the 1990s,” he added.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday also said the Taliban would be judged on their actions, not their words, after they sought to convince the world they would not seek revenge after seizing Afghanistan.

Johnson faced questions over what the main opposition Labour Party described as his “complacency” in handling Britain’s response as parliament was recalled from its summer break to discuss Afghanistan.

The Taliban have said they want peace, will not take revenge against old enemies and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law. But thousands of Afghans, many of whom helped foreign forces, are desperate to leave.

“We will judge this regime based on the choices it makes, and by its actions rather than by its words, on its attitude to terrorism, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access, and the rights of girls to receive an education,” Johnson said.

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