(ANSA – AFP) – KABUL, May 25 – Australia announced that it would close its embassy in Kabul on Friday, expressing concerns about an “increasingly uncertain environment from a security point of view” in the wake of the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the measure as “temporary”, stressing that Australia “remains committed to bilateral relations” but the announcement, just three days after the closure, surprised observers.
Among the soldiers leaving the country there are also 80 Australian soldiers who have thus closed a multi-billion dollar mission that saw the deployment of tens of thousands of soldiers. For Morrison without that small unit and the largest American force as support, the embassy’s security conditions would no longer exist. “The government was informed that it was not possible to provide security guarantees for our diplomatic staff,” the prime minister said in a statement.
Last month, the US Embassy in Kabul ordered its non-essential staff to leave Afghanistan without dismantling the mission. (ANSA – Agence France-Presse).
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