Zalmay Khalilzad, a top US envoy to Afghanistan, has quit, says Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He will be replaced by his deputy, Thomas West.Top US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has stepped down, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Blinken announced Khalilzad’s departure on Monday, saying that the envoy’s deputy, Thomas West, would take over, less than two months after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan.
He had for years spearheaded US dialogue with the Taliban and was a key figure in peace talks with the group.
In mid-August, the US-backed Afghan government collapsed as the Taliban swept through the country at lightning speed and marched into the capital, Kabul, unopposed.
The United States was then left seeking the Taliban’s cooperation in the chaotic US evacuation from Kabul.
Criticism
Khalilzad soon became a lightning rod for criticism, with even his superiors in the Biden administration –– while voicing respect for him personally –– faulting the diplomacy behind the 2020 agreement.
In an interview last month with the Financial Times, Khalilzad said that he had reached a deal with the Taliban in which the group would stay out of Kabul and negotiate a political transition.
But Khalilzad said that the deal collapsed when president Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the Taliban saw a security vacuum.
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