Khalilzad steps down as flawed Afghan trouble-shooter with a troubled legacy

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The message was loud and clear for the US Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, when he  was excluded from the Biden administration’s first formal talks with the Taliban after the chaotic US withdrawal from Kabul.</p>
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“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 days and weeks,” the Afghan-origin Khalizad  said. In his  resignation letter the former high-flying US official acknowledged that he came up short of expectations, and  wanted to make way for another colleague during the “new phase of our Afghanistan policy”.</p>
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Everyone knows that the reasons are manifold, but what’s clear is the large role of what came before — the very problematic US-Taliban Doha deal that Khalilzad negotiated in February last year. It gave the Taliban the undisputed upper hand. Twenty months later, the Afghan government collapsed as the Taliban swept through the country at lightning speed and marched into Kabul unopposed. Khalilzad was left pleading for  the militant group's help in a chaotic US evacuation from Kabul. In turn , he became the face of one of the largest US diplomatic failures in recent memory. The US President Joe Biden was under tremendous pressure to fire him.</p>
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"How does he still have a job?" a US White House official told Reuters. "There is no longer any Afghan reconciliation left."</p>
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"Ambassador Khalilzad has provided you with poor counsel and his diplomatic strategy has failed spectacularly," Representative Michael Waltz, an Afghanistan war veteran, wrote to Biden demanding Khalizad’s sacking but Biden refused to do so.</p>
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<strong>Also Read :</strong>  <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/world-news/why-has-us-peace-envoy-khalilzad-who-helped-taliban-to-take-over-afghanistan-still-not-been-fired-113978.html">Why has US Peace Envoy Khalilzad, who helped Taliban to take over Afghanistan, still not been fired?</a></p>
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The 70-year-old US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, will best remain known as a man who managed to  convince  successive US presidents to withdraw their troops promising them of a latent  peace deal with a “changed” Taliban.  But after the Taliban's forceful takeover of Kabul, he kept a low profile after critics blamed him for the Afghan chaos. But after liking his wounds,  he was  back again praising the Taliban for their “positive” approach. Khalilzad also began to whitewash the fact that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) virtually mounted a coup in Afghanistan by positioning their clients, the banned Haqqani network in the core of the Taliban-led “caretaker” government</p>
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Khalilzad’s resignation has come at a time when a US State Department watchdog is launching a series of investigations into the chaotic end of the Biden administration’s diplomatic operations in Afghanistan, including the emergency evacuation of the US embassy in Kabul, the Politico reported on Monday. The department will investigate various agencies and individuals including the former US envoy Khalilzad.</p>
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<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/18/state-ig-investigations-afghanistan-operations-516207">State IG launches investigations into end of Afghanistan operations</a></p>