Zalmay Khalilzad was appointed Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation under the administration of former President Donald Trump in 2018.
Earlier this month he was excluded from participating in the first formal talks between the U.S. and the Taliban since the withdrawal, according to Reuters.
Zalmay Khalilzad resigned as Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation on Monday. Khalilzad is pictured during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing in Washington, D.C. on March 18, 2021.Blinken offered"gratitude for his decades of service to the American people" in a statement issued after the resignation.
U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity reportedly criticized Khalilzad's negotiation tactics, maintaining that he had conceded"leverage to the militant group, continuously undermined the Afghan government, and had little interest in hearing different viewpoints within the U.S. government."
Khalilzad was born in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and grew up in the Afghan capital Kabul. He first visited the U.S. as a high school exchange student and became an American citizen in 1984, five years after earning a at the University of Chicago. A long career in diplomacy followed, with Khalilzad serving in multiple administrations beginning with that of former President Ronald Reagan.
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