NEW DELHI: Exiled Afghanistan President Abdul Ghani believed that the Taliban won’t be ready to win militarily until that they had actually surrounded Kabul, US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said.
In a candid interview to policy , Khalilzad — who was the American face in talks with Taliban — said that he will still reflect how and where the US went wrong within the last 20-odd years of its war on terror in Afghanistan In the interview, Khalilzad gave an in depth account of the unnerving final moments before the autumn of Kabul, the protracted negotiations with Ghani and his reflection on the way things unfolded within the war-ravaged nation.
‘
Taliban agreed to two-week transition’
Khalilzad said that when Taliban were encircling Kabul within the final days of the withdrawal, he convinced Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, now the deputy prime minister, to avoid any conflict because it could endanger many lives The US envoy said that Baradar, and therefore the team of Taliban leaders he was with, acquiesced to a two-week transition and agreed to stay their forces at the gates of Kabul.
‘Power-sharing struggle’
Talking about the power-sharing struggles, Khalilzad said that the Taliban had agreed to make an “inclusive” government but were averse to the thought of 50:50 power-sharing since they wanted to be on top of things The Talibs wanted to be favorite , replace President [Ashraf] Ghani with one among them, and Ghani was refusing to simply accept that,” the US envoy told policy He said that an agreement was reached that the govt will include leaders from the present dispensation but the leaders acknowledged that a 50:50 deal was not realistic.
‘Ghani was ill-advised’
Khalilzad said that he didn’t foresee Ghani fleeing the country on the day the Taliban reached the gates of Kabul. He added the exiled President was “ill-advised”.
“I had tons of conversations with him [Ghani] … he was of the view that the Talibs wouldn’t be ready to win militarily. He believed that very, very passionately and strongly until … they [Taliban] were surrounding Kabul,” the US envoy said.
Khalilzad said that Ghani strongly held that the constitution doesn’t allow him to simply accept what the social process would require – a replacement constitution and a power-sharing government.
‘
We did get orderly withdrawal …’
Asked whether the Taliban’s takeover was always a foregone conclusion, Khalilzad said that an orderly and planned withdrawal was important thanks to three reasons He said that it helped avoid conflict with the Taliban, gave US time to form the group plan to counterterrorism measures and allowed Afghanistan an opportunity for peace we did get an orderly withdrawal, meaning they agreed to not attack us while we withdrew during the 14 months,” he said Queried on why the negotiations happened without the Afghanistan government on the table, the envoy said that US wanted that but the Talibs were against the thought since they thought that the govt may be a puppet I respect those that say we shouldn’t have negotiated with the Talibs without the govt being there. But we don’t skills far more fighting would have taken for the Talibs to comply with that” he said.
Defending the US decision to withdraw forces despite witnessing the Taliban gain territory, Khalilzad said that though US could have drawn strict conditions like “we won’t withdraw unless there’s an agreement between the Talibs and therefore the government”, such an option would are pessimistic If you made it a decent condition, you never leave; during a sense, you’re saying you are going to remain ,” he said.
‘
Will reflect on past 20 years’
Reflecting on America’s longest war on terror, Khalilzad said they did relatively well on the counterterrorism front and helped improve the lives of Afghan citizens However, he added the US fell short on the building of a vision of a democratic, self-sufficient and secure Afghanistan He concluded by saying that he will reflect on whether some things could are done differently Could it are done differently to form it more resilient and more self-reliant and motivated to fight? Should we’ve pushed harder for a political settlement earlier? Yes, I reflect on those, and that i will reflect on them for a few time to return ,” he said.