US envoy in Kabul amid election uncertainty, stalled talks
KABUL: Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy who led talks with the Taliban until negotiations collapsed last month, was in Kabul on Sunday meeting with top Afghan officials including President Ashraf Ghani.
His visit comes amid speculation the US is attempting to restart the effort to end America’s longest war, after President Donald Trump last month declared talks “dead”.
Khalilzad’s arrival in the Afghan capital coincided with the announcement that preliminary results from recent presidential elections will be delayed for nearly a month, a lengthy postponement likely to stoke political uncertainty and fraud allegations.
“Khalilzad met with the president and briefed him about his recent activities,” Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said. “His viewpoints and the stance of the Afghan government for peace were discussed.”
The US Embassy in Kabul declined requests for comment, but officials said Khalilzad may next stop in Pakistan, which he also visited earlier this month and met informally with Taliban representatives.
Ahead of that visit, a senior Taliban source in Pakistan said that the group had not “backtracked” from talks, suggesting the ball was in America’s court for how things might proceed.
Experts say the US may want to resume its quest to pull troops out of Afghanistan, but first wants to see some sort of Taliban concession — such as a reduction in violence.
Ghani, whose government was cut out of negotiations, had sharply criticised the draft deal that was thought to be on the verge of completion following a year of negotiations.
Afghans went to the polls for a first-round vote on September 28, and initial results were supposed to have been released October 19.
But more than a week after saying the Independent Election Commission would miss that deadline, commission chairwoman Hawa Alam Nuristani said the results now would not be released until November 14.
“We have already apologised for missing the date, but this doesn’t mean failure,” Nuristani told reporters.
— AFP