He was the US chief ambassador to Afghanistan: Who is Zalmay Khalilzad?
Khalilzad, who was appointed Special Representative for Afghanistan by former US President Donald Trump, played an important role in the US negotiations with the Taliban.
Afghan-American diplomat of Pashtun origin, born in 1951. Former US Ambassador to the UN.
He completed his primary and secondary education in Afghanistan. He studied at the American University of Beirut and received his doctorate at the University of Chicago.
From 1985-89, Khalilzad served as a senior State Department official in the Reagan administration. After the Soviet invasion, he advised on the Soviet-Afghan War.
From 1990-92, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Planning at the US Department of Defense under President George H W Bush.
He served in the ministries of state and defense during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad (born March 22, 1951) is an American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation from September 2018 to October 2021. Khailzad was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, serving in the role from 2007 to 2009. Khalilzad was the highest ranking Muslim-American in government at the time he left the position. Prior to this, Khalilzad served in the Bush administration as Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.
He was director of Strategy, Doctrine, and Force Structure at the RAND Corporation from 1993 to 2000.
He was appointed special representative for Afghanistan on 31 December 2001. Khalilzad personally participated in the US efforts to overthrow the Taliban.
Khalilzad, who worked in this position until November 2003, became Afghanistan's Ambassador to the USA in 2003. During this period, he took part in the preparation of the first draft of the Afghanistan constitution.
During Khalilzad's tenure as ambassador, Afghan President Hamid Karzai consulted him on many of his decisions.
Khalilzad took office as the US Ambassador to Iraq on June 21, 2005, and during this time he participated in the work of the newly created Iraqi Constitution. He is the founder and also a board member of the American University of Iraq in Sulaymaniyah.
He was also instrumental in the establishment of the USA Afghanistan University in 2004-2005. In 2018, he was appointed Special Representative for Afghanistan by American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
He is the president of the company named after him, Khalilzad and Partners, which provides international consultancy services. This company also works with sister company Gryphon Capital Partners on energy, education, construction, and infrastructure projects in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Finally, Khalilzad, the US special representative for Afghanistan, is the person who conducts the peace talks with the Taliban in Doha on behalf of the US.
On May 18, 2021, he said that there would be no problem in withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan because the Taliban no longer has such a force, and the Afghan security forces are much stronger than the Taliban, both numerically and in weapons. But it didn't happen as he said. The Taliban took over Afghanistan again.
Khalilzad said that Afghanistan would continue to be isolated internationally and would not be able to get closer to the world because of women's rights.