U.S. Afghan Envoy Stepping Down After Failure of Talks
Zalmay Khalilzad,
the Biden administration’s distinctive consultant for Afghanistan, who for just about two decades tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a peace deal with Taliban officials before the group seized handle of the region in August, is stepping down from the job, the State Office said Monday.
Mr. Khalilzad, who has held a selection of roles underneath numerous administrations, including U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, stated in a letter considered by The Wall Avenue Journal that “the political arrangement amongst the Afghan authorities and the Taliban did not go ahead as envisaged.”
“The good reasons for this are way too elaborate and I will share my views in the coming times and weeks, just after leaving authorities provider,” he wrote, introducing, “It is regrettable, but it is not the last chapter.”
In February 2020, Mr. Khalilzad and then-President
Donald Trump’s
secretary of state,
Mike Pompeo,
brokered a offer for a cease fire and U.S. withdrawal with Taliban political chief Mullah
Abdul Ghani Baradar
with the purpose of bringing peace to the beleaguered region.
Taliban prisoners have been unveiled as a precondition to talks with the Afghan governing administration, and in return the militants agreed not to make it possible for al Qaeda or any other extremist team to operate in spots beneath their management.
Mr. Khalilzad all through the talks was adamant about Taliban participation, in accordance to officers common with them, working to convince Trump administration officers that a U.S. withdrawal could only be confirmed if there have been a power-sharing settlement concerning the U.S.-backed Afghan governing administration and the Taliban.
The Biden administration retained Mr. Khalilzad to proceed the talks in Doha, Qatar, operating to achieve an arrangement for a electricity-sharing agreement concerning the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities.
But as U.S. forces withdrew less than a revised U.S.-Taliban offer, Taliban forces swept across the state, seizing provincial capitals just before in the long run achieving Kabul. That caused the U.S.-backed govt and its army to collapse and led the U.S. to race to evacuate civilians, foreigners and allied Afghans.
Mr. Khalilzad ongoing his talks with the Taliban in Doha even as the group’s fighters manned airport gates in Kabul, where by Afghans and foreigners collected in determined tries to flee the region. By then, there was little still left to negotiate apart from protected passage for foreigners and suitable Afghans who have been permitted to depart Afghanistan.
Mr. Khalilzad’s deputy,
Tom West,
will proceed conversations with the Taliban, the Point out Section reported.
Generate to Vivian Salama at [email protected]
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