Status: 10/19/2021 3:30 a.m.
After the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the US special envoy for the country, Khalilzad, resigned from his post. His previous deputy takes over. Foreign Minister Blinken announced this.
After the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the US special envoy for the country, Zalmay Khalilzad, resigns from his post. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in the evening (local time) that Khalilzad’s previous deputy, Thomas West, would succeed him in office. “I thank Ambassador Khalilzad for his service and welcome the Special Representative West in this role.”
After US President Joe Biden announced the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban took power again in mid-August – around two weeks before the planned end of the US mission.
Khalilzad played a key role in the Doha Agreement
Khalilzad was already the special envoy for Afghanistan under the Republican US President Donald Trump. He was instrumental in negotiating an agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban that was signed in Doha last February. The agreement provided for a complete withdrawal of US troops at the end of May this year and, according to experts, paved the way for the Taliban to come back to power.
In April, the Democrat Biden announced that the operation would end at the end of August, but did not attach any conditions to the Taliban. The advance of the militant Islamists then picked up speed. After the Taliban came to power in Kabul, there were chaotic evacuations at the capital’s airport. Shortly before the end of the US evacuation mission, 13 US soldiers and dozens of Afghans were killed in an attack at the airport. Biden’s government has come under massive pressure over the circumstances of the withdrawal.