WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee has ordered the special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to testify about negotiations with the Taliban, just days after President Donald Trump's decision to cancel talks with the Afghan movement.
Committee chairman Elliott Engel issued a subpoena forcing Khalilzad to appear before the council on September 19.
Engel said he signed the subpoena after the State Department ignored numerous requests for a statement from Khalilzad on the Afghan peace plan.
"More than 2,000 US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan," he said in a statement. "I am tired of this administration blocking information about Congress and the American people regarding the peace process and how we will turn the page of this long war. Operation off course. "
On the other hand, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Morgan Ortagos said that the president's goal in Afghanistan has not changed: to achieve peace and withdraw troops from there.
Asked about Trump's statement that negotiations with the Taliban were "dead," Ortagos said the administration had made clear from the outset that peace talks in Afghanistan would not be easy.
In response to Trump's surprise decision, the Taliban said they had sought negotiations with Washington to end the war, but the US president canceled it without clear support.
Zabihullah Mujahid (Taliban spokesman) also said that the US president should act with caution, and he must understand what the nation is dealing with.
He said in a tweet on Twitter - that Trump's advisers must explain to him that Afghanistan is "the graveyard of empires."
Khalilzad has held nine rounds of talks with Taliban representatives in Doha, without giving much information. He later announced that he had reached a preliminary agreement with the movement to withdraw Washington soldiers, and the Taliban vowed to sever ties with al Qaeda.
Trump appeared eager to end his country's longest war in 18 years in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but accused the Taliban of showing bad faith by launching an attack in Kabul that killed a US soldier at a time when talks were still underway.