*WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressional Committee has issued a subpoena to Trump’sspecial representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad toappear before the panel on September 19.*
The subpoena has been issued to Mr. Khalilzad by representative Eliot Engelchairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee to explain the failure of theUS-Taliban talks before the panel.
“For months, we haven’t been able to get answers on the Afghanistan peaceplan, and now the President is saying the plan is dead. We need to heardirectly from the Administration’s point person on Afghanistan tounderstand how this process went off the rails,” Engel said in a statementreleased on Thursday, September 12.
Meanwhile, the committee chief blamed the U.S. Department of States forkeeping “the congress and American people in dark” on the Afghan peaceprocess.
The subpoena comes as U.S. State Department refused congressional requestsin February, April, and earlier this month for briefings or testimony fromAmbassador Khalilzad on the Afghanistan peace plan.