U.S. envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad resigns.
The US Secretary of State has announced that Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan, has decided to step down and will be replaced by Deputy Secretary of State Tom West. “I thank him for his decades of service to the American people,” said Anthony Blinken, referring to the end of Khalilzad’s tenure as US special envoy.
Blinken stressed that Khalilzad’s deputy, Tom West, who previously served as Vice President of the White House’s national security team during Joe Biden’s tenure, is serving as the new US envoy to Afghanistan.
The Afghan-born Khalilzad defended his record in his resignation letter, but also admitted that he had not been able to get what he wanted in his last term. “Political relations between the Afghan government and the Taliban did not go as planned,” he wrote in a letter to Anthony Blinken.
“The reasons for this are very complex, and I will share my views with you in the coming days and weeks.” Khalilzad had previously stated in an interview with Al Jazeera that he intended to leave the post. Khalilzad’s resignation comes less than two months after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Zalmai Khalilzad was in charge of Washington’s negotiations with the Taliban for three years as US Special Representative for Afghanistan, and played a key role in peace talks with the militant group; But less than two months ago, with the rapid advance of Taliban forces across Afghanistan and the capture of Kabul, the US-backed government collapsed. U.S. officials said the veteran U.S. diplomat relinquished power to the Taliban, consistently weakened the Afghan government, and was reluctant to listen to dissent within the US government.
Current and former US officials have told Reuters that Zalmai Khalilzad, who has been in charge of negotiating with the Taliban for three years, has become a symbol of the United States’ biggest diplomatic failure in recent years.
