Washington's relationship with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appears increa...
WASHINGTON/KABUL - Washington’s relationship with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appears increasingly at risk of permanent damage, the consequence of a U.S. policy shift that has so far excluded his government from talks with the Taliban and of his own determination to retain power and manage peace efforts himself.
But from Ghani’s perspective, the negotiations themselves, led by U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, feel like a personal betrayal and a capitulation by the United States that could return the Taliban to power, Afghan officials say. The official added that Washington should expect Ghani will act like a politician in an election year, saying: “We shouldn’t expect that Ghani is going to be Ghani the statesman, where he says: ‘The best thing would be for me to step aside’.”
In a nod to Washington’s outrage over Mohib’s remarks, Ghani is considering replacing Mohib with the Afghan envoy to London, a second Afghan official said.Since his 2016 election campaign, Trump has made the case to end the Afghan conflict that began in 2001 and has tied the prospect of troop drawdowns in Afghanistan to success in peace talks. But it is unclear if Trump will accept a deal at any cost - something that Ghani and other Afghans increasingly fear.
“By acceding to this Taliban demand, we have ourselves delegitimized the government we claim to support,” Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote in a Washington Post column, adding that the U.S. move signaled “we were surrendering.” “The two sides discussed and agreed on issues concerning them but it did not change anything for the people or the government,” the first Afghan official said.
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