Ashraf Ghani’s abrupt exit scuttled deal on power-sharing, says Zalmay Khalilzad

Published September 16, 2021
This file photo shows Zalmay Khalilzad. ─ Reuters/File
This file photo shows Zalmay Khalilzad. ─ Reuters/File

WASHINGTON: Former president Ashraf Ghani’s abrupt exit last month scuttled a deal under which the Taliban would hold off entering Kabul and negotiate a political transition, the US negotiator on Afghanistan said on Wednesday.

In his first interview since the collapse of the 20-year Western-backed government, Zalmay Khalilzad, who brokered a deal with the Taliban last year to withdraw US troops, told the Financial Times that the insurgents had agreed to stay outside the capital for two weeks and shape a future government.

“Even at the end, we had an agreement with the Talibs for (them) not to enter Kabul,” he told the newspaper in the interview.

But Ghani fled on Aug 15 and the Taliban, in a previously arranged meeting that day with Gen Frank McKenzie, chief of Central Command, asked if US troops would ensure security for Kabul as government authority crumbled.

“And then you know what happened, we weren’t going to take responsibility,” Khalilzad said.

President Joe Biden had insisted that US troops would only work to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies and not extend America’s longest war. Asked about Khalilzad’s remarks, State Department spokesman Ned Price said it was not an option to stay “a moment longer” in Kabul.

“There was never a realistic, there was never a viable, there was never a practical option for the United States to stay,” Price told reporters.

“We were left with a very clear and stark impression that if the United States sought to prolong our presence on the ground, our service members... would again be targets of Taliban violence, not to mention terrorist attacks by groups like IS (the militant Islamic State group).”

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Elusive deal
Updated 25 Mar, 2023

Elusive deal

The cost of ineptitude in dealing with the IMF will be brutal.
Orwellian schemes
Updated 25 Mar, 2023

Orwellian schemes

THE proposed task force to police social media for ‘anti-army’ content is a bad idea, simply because such vague...
Covid-19 on the rise
25 Mar, 2023

Covid-19 on the rise

IN a development that ought to be watched closely by the authorities, Covid-19 infections saw a sudden increase in a...
Delayed polls
Updated 24 Mar, 2023

Delayed polls

It is nothing less than a tragic betrayal of the people by the ECP.
Targeted killings
24 Mar, 2023

Targeted killings

DISTURBING echoes of a violent past have re-emerged in Karachi, and experience tells us that swift action is...
TB prevention
24 Mar, 2023

TB prevention

IF Pakistan is to achieve the target of effectively ending the tuberculosis epidemic in the country by 2035, as...