Afghan Resistance calls for probe into Khalilzad's 'backdoor deals' with Taliban
Oct 19, 2021
Kabul [Afghanistan], October 19 : The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan urged the United States to probe its former top envoy to the country over his suspected dealings with the Taliban.
The developments came almost two months after the US withdrew from Afghanistan in a 'chaotic and deadly' evacuation process. Khalilzad was the person who led talks with the Taliban in Qatar that resulted in the Doha agreement with the outfit to withdraw US troops by May 2021.
Khalilzad stepped down on Monday to make way for a "new phase of our Afghanistan policy".
"The US government should conduct a thorough investigation of Zalmay Khalilzad's backdoor deals with the Taliban crime syndicate. For the past 3 years he betrayed both Afghanistan and the US by legitimizing a terrorist group and giving too many concessions without anything tangible in return," tweeted Ali Nazary, who is the foreign relations chief of Afghanistan's National Resistance Front.
Khalilzad reportedly admitted in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the political arrangement between the Taliban and the government in Kabul "did not go forward as envisaged".
Thomas West, who previously served as the Deputy Special Representative will be the Special Representative for Afghanistan after Khalilzad.