US envoy for Afghanistan steps down after withdrawal

WASHINGTON – The U.S. peculiar envoy for Afghanistan is stepping down pursuing the chaotic American withdrawal from the country, the State Department said Monday.

Zalmay Khalilzad volition permission the station this week aft much than 3 years connected the occupation nether some the Trump and Biden administrations. He had been criticized for not pressing the Taliban hard capable successful bid talks begun portion Trump was president but Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked him for his work.

“I widen my gratitude for his decades of work to the American people,” Blinken said of Khalilzad, a erstwhile U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Afghanistan.

Khalilzad had initially planned to permission the occupation successful May aft Biden’s announcement that the U.S. withdrawal would beryllium completed earlier the 20th day of the 9/11 attacks successful September. However, helium was asked to enactment connected and did so.

Khalilzad had served arsenic the peculiar envoy for Afghan reconciliation nether some the Trump and Biden administrations since September 2018, erstwhile the-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought him connected committee to pb negotiations with the Taliban and the Afghan government.

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An Afghan native, Khalilzad was unsuccessful successful getting the 2 sides unneurotic to forge a power-sharing woody but helium did negociate a U.S. statement with the Taliban successful February 2020 that yet led to the extremity of America’s longest-running war.

The statement with the Taliban served arsenic the template for the Biden administration's withdrawal of each U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which galore judge was conducted excessively hastily and without capable planning. Thousands of Afghan citizens who worked for U.S. forces determination implicit the past 2 decades were near down successful the unreserved to permission arsenic were 100 of American citizens and ineligible residents.

President Joe Biden and his aides often said the statement that Khalilzad negotiated tied their hands erstwhile it came to the pullout and led to the abrupt takeover of the state by the Taliban, though medication critics noted that Biden had abandoned the “conditions-based” requirements for a implicit U.S. withdrawal.

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Despite the criticism, Khalilzad remained connected the job, though helium skipped the archetypal high-level post-withdrawal U.S.-Taliban gathering successful Doha, Qatar earlier this month, prompting speculation helium was connected his mode out. Khalilzad volition beryllium replaced by his lawman Thomas West, who led the U.S. delegation to that past circular of talks successful Doha.

However, the U.S. volition not beryllium sending a typical to a Russia-hosted league connected Afghanistan this week, the State Department said. Speaking earlier Blinken's announcement of Khalilzad's departure, section spokesperson Ned Price cited “logistics” arsenic the crushed the U.S. would not enactment successful the Moscow talks.

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