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MONITORING (SW) – A senior U.S. diplomat has told Afghanistan's president that U.S. officials will no longer deal with his national security adviser, Reuters news agency reports, citing four knowledgeable U.S. and Afghan sources.
The report published on March 18 said the diplomat told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that the United States was ending contacts with Hamdullah Mohib, who serves as Ghani's national security adviser.
The reported noted the State Department declined to comment, and a representative of the Afghan Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment. It noted Mohib in a Washington news conference on March 14 accused the U.S. special envoy to his country, Zalmay Khalilzad, of "delegitimizing" the Kabul government by excluding it from peace negotiations with the Taliban and acting like a "viceroy."
He added that Khalilzad had "his own personal history — he has ambitions in Afghanistan. He was wanting to run for president twice."
Khalilzad is leading the U.S. negotiating team in talks with Taliban militants in Qatar as Washington attempts to bring an end to the long war in Afghanistan.
According to the report, many Afghan officials have been upset by their exclusion from the talks, as the Taliban has refused to talk directly to the Kabul government, claiming it is a puppet of the West.
According to the Reuters report, the day after Mohib made his comments, David Hale — the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs — told Ghani by phone that Mohib would no longer be received in Washington and that U.S. civilian and military officials would not do business with him. "Hale called Ghani and told him that Mohib is no longer welcome in D.C. The U.S. will not deal with him in Kabul or in D.C. anymore," said a former senior Afghan official who requested anonymity.
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