Washington’s Afghan peace envoy is crisscrossing South Asia and Europe trying to resuscitate efforts to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 18 -year war even though President Donald Trump hasn’t expressed any interest in resuming talks with the Taliban.
Zalmay Khalilzad’s latest stop is Pakistan where he met with Prime Minister Imran Khan and on Tuesday is expected to meet the powerful military army chief.
Khalilzad comes to Pakistan, where the Taliban’s governing council is believed to be headquartered, from Afghanistan where he met with leaders, including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who has mostly dismissed any talks not led by his government.
Pakistan has been pushing for a resumption of direct U.S.-Taliban talks since their collapse in early September.