US no longer prioritizing Afghanistan: Khalilzad

Former US special representative to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said he thinks it’s unlikely that the country will ever return to Washington’s foreign policy priority list due to changes in the world, and the “great power competition”, as well as the lack of a roadmap for success.

Khalilzad told TRT World this week that while the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) was in his opinion making some serious mistakes, the only way to solve the issues was for all people in Afghanistan to broadly reach an agreement on a formula.

He said the IEAs need to start a consultative process and that IEA policies also need to respect the views of society, including views related to education.

Khalilzad warned that failure on the part of the IEA to enter into intra-Afghan dialogue could lead to violence and even conflict over time.

He said the economy “was in poor shape”, which he said was in part due to international sanctions. He implied this could be resolved if the IEA goes back to the Doha agreement which he said provided the best framework to work in.

He said the US government had supported the “fundamental parts” of this agreement at the time of signing.

“So they need to start the process of conversing with each other and agreeing to a process for a government that has a broad mandate from the people,” he said.