Zalmay Khalilzad, US envoy who brokered Afghanistan exit, quits
- Born in Afghanistan, Khalilzad was a rare US diplomat able to develop a friendly rapport with the Taliban
- After the country fell to the militants, he became a lightning rod for criticism, as the Biden administration blamed the diplomacy behind the 2020 deal
Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran US envoy whose months of hotel-ballroom diplomacy helped end the US war in Afghanistan but failed at preventing a Taliban takeover, resigned on Monday.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Khalilzad defended his record but acknowledged that he came up short and said he wanted to make way during the “new phase of our Afghanistan policy”.
“The political arrangement between the Afghan government and the Taliban did not go forward as envisaged,” he wrote.
“The reasons for this are too complex and I will share my thoughts in the coming day and weeks.”
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Taliban guards in training ahead of reopening of Afghanistan’s largest prison
Born in Afghanistan, the dapper 70-year-old academic turned US diplomat took senior positions under former president George W. Bush, becoming the US ambassador to Kabul and then Baghdad and the United Nations.
