Malali Bashir Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty December 17, 2021 By August 15, several thousand Taliban fighters had encircled the Afghan capital, Kabul, after seizing most of the country in a blistering military offensive against the Western-backed Afghan government. With the militants at the city gates, President Ashraf Ghani and his close team of advisers were
The New Yorker: A trove of unreleased documents reveals a dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion that led to the fall of the Western-backed government. Rahimi told Ghani that the Taliban had pledged not to enter Kabul. Yet this was based on assurances from Khalilzad and the Taliban, and Ghani regarded both as unreliable
Michael Hughes: Considering the Americans – for years – have gone to great lengths to obfuscate the reality on the ground in Afghanistan, it is only fitting that Washington is trying to muddy the waters as to how and why the war ended in such a disastrous manner and who bears the most responsibility. Of
8am: “Mr. Khalilzad considers Dr. Ghani’s obstinacy to maintain power as the main obstacle to his so-called peace,” Dr. Spanta, former national security adviser to Hamid Karzai, tweeted on Friday, October 29. “Ghani’s madness in maintaining his illegitimate power and his hostility to peace and the rule of law was evident. But Mr. Khalilzad, weren’t
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News October 27, 2021 ISLAMABAD — Zalmay Khalilzad, the senior U.S. official who led the negotiations with the Taliban, blamed, for the most part, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s “intransigence,” the Afghan elite’s “selfishness” and Afghan soldiers’ lack of will to fight for the rapid Taliban military takeover of the country in August. “We
Tolo News: Talking to CBS News, Khalilzad said the US military tried many times to strengthen its position on the battleground, but it failed. “The negotiation was a result of–based on the judgment that we weren’t winning the war and therefore time was not on our side and better to make a deal sooner than
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 18, 2021 WASHINGTON — Zalmay Khalilzad, the top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, is stepping down from his long-standing role following the Western military pullout from that war-ravaged country, the State Department says. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on October 18 said Khalilzad, who led U.S. negotiators in talks with the
Ariana: Had Ghani however resigned in order to bring peace to Afghanistan, and allowed the establishment of a new government, “it could have been a historic step”. “The name of the president could have been written in gold in the history of Afghanistan,” he said, adding that only Ghani can answer the question on why
Ayaz Gul VOA News September 15, 2021 ISLAMABAD – The U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan says he secured a last-minute deal with the Taliban in mid-August to keep the insurgents outside Kabul while they negotiated a political transition. But, he says, President Ashraf Ghani’s decision to flee the country scuttled that plan. Afghan-born envoy Zalmay