Thomas West, who has been Deputy Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation since January this 12 months, will change Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned in a press release
Some two months after the U.S.’s chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, America’s chief negotiator in what was meant to be an Afghan peace settlement, has resigned. Mr. Khalilzad, an Afghan-American, was appointed in 2018 by former U.S. President Donald Trump and continued to carry the place within the Biden administration.
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Thomas West, who has been Deputy Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation since January this 12 months, will change Mr. Khalilzad, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned in a press release. In his function as Deputy, Mr. West had already met Taliban representatives in Doha after the American departure. He additionally made a visit to Kabul with CIA Director William Burns, as per a CNN report.
“Thank you to Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad for decades of tireless service to the United States,” Mr. Blnken mentioned on Twitter, shortly after the official announcement went out. Mr. Khalilzad, a former diplomat, was Ambassador to Afghanistan in the course of the Bush administration. He had additionally served as Ambassador to Iraq and the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N.
Mr. Khalilzad has been criticised for orchestrating a February 2020 take care of the Taliban, particulars of which have been principally hammered out in Doha, slicing out the previous Afghan authorities. The U.S. agreed to withdraw its troops by May 2021 (initially) with the Taliban refraining from attacking the troops in return. Mr. Biden prolonged the withdrawal deadline to August 31.
After the U.S. departure, Mr. Khalilzad had helped get Americans and weak Afghans in a foreign country, the New York Times reported. As the U.S. was coming into a brand new section” in its Afghanistan coverage, this was the precise time to resign, Mr. Khalilzad says in his resignation letter, a duplicate of which The Hindu was capable of entry.
“The political arrangement between the Afghan government and the Taliban did not go forward as envisaged. The reasons for this are too complex and I will share my thoughts in the coming day and weeks,” Mr. Khalilzad writes. Earlier he had dismissed the notion that the Afghan forces would give up to the Taliban.
“I personally believe that the statements that their forces will disintegrate and the Talibs will take over in short order are mistaken,” Mr. Khalilzad had instructed the House of Representatives in May this 12 months.
Mr. Khalilzad had mentioned in May final 12 months, in an interview to The Hindu in May 2020, that the U.S. couldn’t see a “better alternative” to the deal it had struck with the Taliban and that India ought to instantly interact with the outfit.
In his resignation letter he says, “We also engaged our allies and other major players, including China, Russia, India and Pakistan.” However, India was ignored of the ‘extended troika’ talks (Russia, China, the U.S. and Pakistan) on Afghanistan and was not privy , as per latest remarks by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, to the small print of what was negotiated between the U.S. and the Taliban in Doha.
The U.S., together with the worldwide neighborhood, is now confronted with challenges of negotiating with the Taliban on human rights, particularly the rights of ladies, whereas getting help to Afghanistan, which is quick descending right into a humanitarian disaster. These points are more likely to occupy Mr. West’s agenda.
“At the top of the list of the challenges he will face include how to support the humanitarian and development needs of the Afghan people while the Taliban government is in power; what the future of human rights in Afghanistan will be; and whether and how the international community can make a difference to regional security,” Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University and a former excessive rating diplomat, instructed The Hindu.
(With inputs from Suhasini Haidar in New Delhi)