Will Zalmay Khalilzad Return to His Afghan “Garden Bed”?
Author: Andrey Serenko, Director of the Center for the Study of Afghan Politics (Russia)
The next presidential elections will be held in the USA very soon, and Republican Donald Trump may well win.
In connection with this, the process of fortune-telling has intensified in various Afghan political groups - how will Washington's Afghan policy change in this case (if it does change), and who will implement it in practice?
And here, at least, one interesting intrigue arises: should we expect the return of the former Special Representative of the State Department Zalmay Khalilzad to the post of the main architect and curator of US Afghan policy?
Yes, Mr. Khalilzad is not young, in four months he will turn 74. Well, Donald Trump is not a boy either - today, superpowers are generally led by working pensioners. So age, perhaps, will not be the main argument against the return of Zalmay Khalilzad to active Afghan politics.
Moreover, he left the post of Special Representative of the State Department only three years ago, in October 2021, as a scapegoat in the Democratic administration of Joseph Biden for the unaesthetic withdrawal of American troops from Kabul, which the Taliban had already captured.
Khalilzad's return is supported by his role in preparing the Doha deal with the Taliban, which still determines American policy towards the Taliban and the Afghanistan they captured.
In fact, the Taliban's return to power in Kabul is largely due to Zalmay Khalilzad and his many years of intrigue against the republican government of Afghanistan. Everyone remembers these merits—including the Taliban, who dream of international recognition of their regime. Moreover, it was Khalilzad who helped them take the first step on this path through the same deal in Doha.
The fact that Donald Trump is actively criticizing Biden's team for failures in Afghan policy should not mislead anyone: Biden was simply forced to finish what the Trump-Khalilzad tandem had planned and started to implement.
And it is unlikely that there will be a more sophisticated and experienced character in Afghan intrigues in the "Trump 2.0" team than Zalmay Khalilzad.
In our opinion, Khalilzad's return to active Afghan policy in Washington in the event of Trump's victory in the presidential election is quite possible. Even if only for a short time, and even if as a shadow player, without public regalia and positions.
Trump in the White House - this, with a high probability, means Khalilzad in Kabul. By the way, he has already been there recently.
The working pensioner Khalilzad seems to be preparing to return to his favorite Afghan "garden bed".
And this is bad news for Afghan politicians in exile, hoping for a change in Washington's course towards the Taliban regime in 2025.
As, incidentally, it is also bad news for the countries of the region, which have tried to wrest control over the Taliban from the Americans. So far, this has not been successful. If Khalilzad returns to the "Great game", it will definitely not be possible.
But these are just assumptions for now. We are waiting for the results of the US presidential elections. What if Trump does not win...
