The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said Thursday it will subpoena US President Donald Trump's special Afghanistan envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, to testify at an open hearing on 19 September.
The committee's Democratic chairman Eliot Engel said he signed the subpoena after the US State Department ignored numerous requests for briefings by Khalilzad about the Afghanistan peace plan and the Trump administration's path forward in that country, Reuters reported.
“Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today subpoenaed Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad to testify at an open hearing of the Committee next Thursday, September 19th”, the release said.
Afghanistan has long been suffering from an unstable security situation. The government, supported by an international coalition, has been fighting the Taliban, which has been waging a war against Kabul for almost two decades.
In recent weeks, the Taliban reportedly carried out several deadly terrorist attacks, thus undermining the peace process. US President Donald Trump blamed the Taliban for sabotaging the negotiations after a US soldier was killed in one of the attacks. Trump said via Twitter that he canceled plans to hold secret Camp David talks with the Taliban leadership and Afghan leaders. He was reportedly also planning to hold a separate meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
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