There are lots of violations of human rights around the world, and it's not just the responsibility of the US forces, Zalmay Khalilzad, former US special envoy for Afghanistan reconciliation, said on Thursday.Khalilzad made the remarks at at a Republican-led House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.Democrat Kathy Manning said she was &shocked& by the 2020 deal and accused Khalilzad of playing a hand in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's (IEA) victory, saying they &gave up all the leverage& with the landmark agreement.Manning particularly emphasised the deal's failure to include any conditions on the status of women.I certainly cannot see any protection of Afghan women and girls [in the Doha Agreement] … Apparently, the protection of women and girls was not important to President Trump,& Manning said.Khalilzad argued that the status of women in Afghanistan was meant to be included in US-supported, intra-Afghan negotiations after a withdrawal and the establishment of a shared government.The key issue for you and for our other leaders is whether achieving the goals that you outline on women should have been a precondition or withdrawal … there are lots of violations of human rights around the world, and it's not just the responsibility of the US forces,& Khalilzad said.Keith Self, a Republican, called it &naive to think the Taliban (IEA) was ever going to live up to anything&.Over a span of 20 years dealing with a region, this entire process that we&ve heard today is extremely naive, and, sir, I find you in the middle of it,& Self told Khalilzad.Khalilzad repeatedly emphasised that the ultimate blame for the demise of American goals in a postwar Afghanistan rested with Ashraf Ghani's government.I will put the responsibility for what happened largely on the shoulders of the Afghan government leadership for not standing for their government, for their system and for the values that they said they had,& he told the committee.But he conceded that Washington's calculations were clearly wrong on the direction a postwar Afghanistan would take.The assumption was, it turned out to be wrong, that the government would not collapse, that it would have more forces, weapons, more international standing, more money,& he said.Khalilzad has previously said that he believes Washington did not put enough pressure on Ghani to share power with the IEA.
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