Zalmay Khalilzad, a top US envoy to Afghanistan, has quit, says Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He will be replaced by his deputy, Thomas West.
In an exclusive interview with TRT World, Ahmad Wali Massoud shares his thoughts on the staying power of the Taliban-led Islamic Emirate, the future of the resistance, and what the US and Britain both got wrong.
The agreement’s language suggests that the US was prepared to accept the Taliban’s eventual takeover of Afghanistan.
Questions surround Khalilzad, an enigmatic diplomat who presided over US failures in Iraq and now the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.
The current regional balance of power, in which Russia and China see the Taliban as the lesser of two evils, and a hasty US withdrawal helped the group march across Afghanistan, experts say.
The Taliban has been inching closer to Kabul and full control of Afghanistan, fuelling fears of a return to their brutal regime that was toppled by the United States-led 2001 invasion.
US envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to hold talks in Doha where he will "press the Taliban to stop their military offensive and to negotiate a political settlement," says State Department.
"At this point, they (the Taliban) are demanding that they take the lion's share of power in the next government, given the military situation as they see it," says special US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in bleak assessment of Doha peace process.
In the face of a re-energised Taliban assault Afghan government forces are abandoning their posts, but the fight is far from over as the Taliban is also rumoured to be taking heavy losses.
A NATO report describes a 37 percent surge in Taliban attacks over the last year, emboldened by the agreement with the United States.
President Ashraf Ghani offers a share in power to Taliban, provided the militant group "gives up the war" as Afghanistan celebrates Victory Day to mark Mujahideen's overthrowing of Soviet-backed Kabul regime in 1992.
Managing a withdrawal, and its fallout, will be a bigger challenge than the invasion.
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