Thomas West has been appointed as the new US special representative to Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken blazoned in a statement on Monday. This comes after Zalmay Khalilzad abnegated from the post following chaotic pullout of the American forces from Afghanistan.
West, who served on also-Vice President Biden’s public security platoon and on the National Security Council staff, will lead politic sweats, advise the Secretary and Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and coordinate nearly with the US Embassy Kabul presence in Doha on America’s interests in Afghanistan,”Blinken said in a statement.
Blinken also thanked Khalilzad for his”decades of service”.
“As Special Representative for Afghan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad steps down from his part, I extend my gratefulness for his decades of service to the American people,”Blinken said in the statement.
Khalilzad was the person who led addresses with the Taliban in Qatar that redounded in the Doha agreement between the Islamic group and former US President Donald Trump to completely withdraw US colors by May 2021.
But he has been criticised for not pressing the Taliban hard enough during peace addresses.
Current and former US officers told news agency Reuters that in the three times Khalilzad has been in the part, he came the face of one of the largest US politic failures in recent memory.
US officers, who spoke on the condition of obscurity, said the expert American diplomat relinquished influence to the militant group, continuously undermined the Afghan government, and had little interest in hearing different shoes within the American government.
Some officers, lawgivers and foreign policy experts said that he’s one of the many US diplomats to have relations with the Taliban and was simply following orders from both Trump and Joe Biden Get all American colors out of Afghanistan
.
In 2019, also chairman Ashraf Ghani’s public security counsel indicted Khalilzad of” dealing out”the Afghan government in addresses while advancing the Taliban a façade of credibility. Khalilzad was given a free hand by the Trump administration, but the peace deal he brokered went nowhere. In accommodations, officers said Khalilzad gave down too important early by making clear that Washington was looking to withdraw all of its colors.
Khalilzad has so far declined to note on the record.
Born in Afghanistan, Khalilzad was a stager of once Democratic administrations who helped President George W Bush plan the defeat of the Taliban in 2002.
The United States, meanwhile, said on Monday that it’ll not join addresses on Afghanistan blazoned for this Tuesday by Russia that will include two other crucial players, China and Pakistan. The state department criticized logistical issues but said it considered the Russian- led forum “ formative.”
“ We look forward to engaging in that forum going forward, but we are not in a position to take part this week,” state department spokesperson Ned Price told journalists.
