Thread by @tnewtondunn

Raab at FAC: asked why he didn't do more to build a new coalition to replace the US in Afghanistan? A key question. Raab evades saying what personal efforts he made to insist it was never doable anyway. “Nobody was going to backfill the capacity that the US provided”.

Raab goes on to say Afghanistan has effectively been a failed mission for years. "At what point did we last have the military objectives identified and the exit strategy to achieve them?" Once it's realised it's a mission without end, the decision must be to pull out, he argues.

Tugendhat immediately hits back to ask: "What is the US’s exit strategy from South Korea?" Raab appears stumped: “I don’t know that”. But then insists the analogy is false.

Raab leaves the UK tonight to visit Pakistan - a key regional power. Admits it's his first visit to the country as Foreign Secretary, in two years of doing the job. Blames covid.

Raab attacks "nonsense and rubbish in the papers” for suggestion the FCDO's rapid deployment team should have gone to Kabul airport earlier. Insists the military said it wasn't safe. Alicia Kearns hits back to say she was once a team member and they're trained for everything.

Raab doesn't deny promising the PM the Queen’s portrait would not be left in the UK's Kabul embassy. Says he gave orders for it to be destroyed so as not to give the Taliban "a PR coup". Tugendhat tells Raab there are photographs of Talibs posing by the portrait.

The final exchange: Tugendhat says the Afghan pull out is "the single biggest foreign policy disaster since Suez, because it has exposed weakness in our alliances and our stance". Unsurprisingly, Raab rejects: "I struggle with the Suez analogy". But neither declares it a success.

Raab's FAC session in summary: a thoroughly lawyerly performance - professional, defensive, gave little away. Admitted no liability, which meant showing no contrition. To do that, he had to keep purposely vague about much. The downside is all those questions are still out there.