Democrat: summons to appear before a panel of the US special envoy to Afghanistan

The chairman of a committee of the Upper House of Representatives on Thursday assigned to the agenda the US Special Envoy for Afghanistan in front of legislators after the US Department of Justice. US state had repeatedly failed to put the diplomat at his disposal.

the subpoena follows the collapse of peace negotiations between the Trump administration and the Afghan Taliban, and after the decision of President Donald Trump to cancel a secret meeting with the Islamist militia at Camp David.

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Representative Eliot Engel (DN.Y.), who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad was to appear before Congress so that lawmakers and the American people could "understand how this process derailed. "

Engel said Khalilzad was scheduled to appear before the panel on 19 September. The subpoena is the first time the Engel committee has published this Congress, according to a statement from its office.

Engel warned earlier this month that he would summon Khalilzad to appear if he did not appear voluntarily. According to Engel's office, "the State Department refused the applications in February, April, and earlier this month for presentations or testimonials by Ambassador Khalilzad on the peace plan for Afghanistan. "

His office added in a statement that "Secretary of State Pompeo also categorically refused to put Ambassador Khalilzad at the disposal of the committee".

"I'm fed up with this administration preventing Congress and the American people from knowing the peace process and seeing how we will end this long war," Engel said in a statement.

The State Department Press Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Khalilzad either.

The veteran diplomat spent months engaging in difficult peace talks with the Afghan Taliban in hopes of reaching a multi-party peace deal that also included the Afghan government.

In the run-up to an initial agreement, Trump called for a secret meeting with the Taliban and Afghanistan's president at Camp David, the presidential retreat at which well-publicized peace talks with other parties took place location.

Trump shocked Washington when he announced via Twitter this weekend that he had decided to stop the talks, which were still unreported, due to a recent Taliban attack in Afghanistan. who killed an American soldier.

He later stated that, for him, the negotiations were "dead".

Trump's decision this week to fire his national security adviser, John Bolton, who had opposed talks with the Afghan militia, fueled speculation that the president might eventually agree to resume negotiations.