Afghans say US envoy to Kabul betrayed their country
Zalmay Khalilzad, Washington’s envoy to Afghanistan, “betrayed” the country and his resignation is an admission of failure, Afghans told The National.
Mr Khalilzad has faced criticism for his role in negotiating a political settlement with the Taliban and for the collapse of the government in Kabul in August.
But political experts were not surprised by his departure.
It was “always in the cards”, said Jonathan Schroden, research programme director at CNA, a non-profit research and analysis organisation.
“He was originally slated to leave in May but stayed on to help with the withdrawal transition period,” he said.
“His deputy has been much more involved and active with the administration’s engagements on Afghanistan of
late, so it appears the White House is making that change permanent.”
Mr Khalilzad was hired by Donald Trump in 2018 and retained by his successor, US President Joe Biden.
Born in the northern Afghan province of Balkh, Mr Khalilzad was assigned the Herculean task of bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table and striking a deal that would ensure US troops returned home.
This goal was achieved, but many Afghans have placed the blame for the current crisis squarely on his shoulders.
“Zal’s mixed track record and the mixed views of many audiences of him are aspects of the withdrawal that the Biden team probably would like to put behind them as they continue to deal with the fallout of Kabul’s collapse,” Dr Schroden said.
Sayed Mohammadi, 34, from Kabul, said Mr Khalilzad should have resigned long ago.
“He took Afghanistan and handed it over to the Taliban. With his Taliban deal, he forced the Afghan government to release those 5,000 prisoners, ensuring the rise in violence against Afghans and weakening our government,” he said.
Mr Mohammadi said the deal, signed by the US last year, only empowered the Taliban.
“He never had any interest in helping Afghans,” he said.
Mr Mohammadi lost his job with an international NGO after the fall of Kabul. The closure of girls’ schools in the Afghan capital has put his daughters’ education on hold and put his wife, a teacher, out of work.
“Everything vanished overnight,” he said.
Mr Mohammadi believes Mr Khalilzad’s legacy will be the betrayal of his country.
“Afghanistan has made them what they are today and he should have thought of his people when making decisions that put the Taliban in power. Afghanistan was like his mother, but he turned out to be a namak haram,” he said, using a Dari phrase meaning “traitor”.
Former Afghan politicians have said Mr Khalilzad’s manoeuvring during talks with the Taliban undermined Afghanistan’s political identity.
“One of the biggest mistakes that the US government, on Khalilzad’s advice, made during the peace process was to recognise the Taliban politically,” said Mohammad Rahimi, a former provincial governor in Afghanistan.
“They paved a way for their international recognition, and empowered them without receiving any solid commitment from the Taliban.”
Mr Rahimi, whose name has been changed, was deposed when the Taliban returned to power. He is now in hiding.
“Despite being Afghan, he [Khalilzad] wasn’t neutral and much of his efforts were ethnocentric in nature, undermining and weakening other political forces in the country,” he said.
“This, along with his failure to provide accurate information on Afghanistan to US leaders, led to wrong strategies and policies bringing us to where we are today – a terror group in power.”