Khalilzad on bottom row, 2nd from left
A former US official has reportedly been groomed to assume the second most powerful post in Afghanistan -- a move that will tighten Washington's grip on Kabul.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has agreed to give the former US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, the position of chief executive officer of Afghanistan.
According to senior US and Afghan officials who were speaking on condition of anonymity, the position would allow Khalilzad to serve as some form of "a prime minister, except not prime minister because he wouldn't be responsible to a parliamentary system."
The appointment, which comes amid frosty relations between Karzai and the White House, has raised worldwide concern.
"The idea of having an American as a major senior official of Afghanistan is a very risky one both for the Afghan government and the person in question," noted Teresita C. Schaffer, a former State Department official who is currently a senior South Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"Whoever is going to run Afghanistan will have to have both feet on the ground there, and I know Zal has intimate knowledge of the country and was involved to a degree that was virtually unheard of for an ambassador," she added.
Khalilzad, an Afghan-born US citizen who played an influential role under the Bush administration, had first decided to run against Karzai in the upcoming presidential elections in Afghanistan, but he eventually dropped his bid and opted for a high-ranking position in the Kabul government instead.
Over the past years, Khalilzad has been no stranger to controversy. He rankled State Department officials when he arranged to meet Asif Ali Zardari for talks on Pakistan's presidential elections, just when Washington was trying to prove that it did not meddle in Pakistan.
He drew an angry response for attending a forum with Iran's foreign minister without getting permission from the White House first.
Although the US officialdom insists that it had nothing to do with Khalilzadeh's prime ministerial bid, it is no secret that enlisting Khalilzad in the Afghan government would give Washington considerable leverage to advance its political agenda in Afghanistan and the region.
I predicted 12 months ago that Khalilzad would be lined up to take over from Karzai, well it looks as if he and the rest of the neocons are going to get the next best thing!!
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