A senior Pakistani official has launched an unusually sharp attack on former U.S. envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, accusing him of defending the Taliban and challenging him to clarify “which side he stands on” — the Taliban or the United States.
According to IRAF, Murtaza Solangi, spokesman for the president of Pakistan, made the remarks on Thursday, September 17, in response to a recent post by Khalilzad on X.
Khalilzad had reposted a report about former Afghan soldiers allegedly fighting alongside Pakistani security forces in Balochistan and asked: “Are former Afghan soldiers fighting for Pakistan’s security establishment in Balochistan?”
Solangi described the question as an attempt to “whitewash the Taliban,” accusing Khalilzad of defending what he called the Taliban’s “murderous regime.”
He also argued that the Taliban had failed to honor even the terms of the agreement it signed with Khalilzad when he was serving as the U.S. representative for Afghanistan.
In a pointed remark, Solangi said: “You cannot eat the sheep’s tail fat with the wolf and cry with the shepherd.”
The Pakistani official said Khalilzad should make clear, once and for all, which side he represents amid the ongoing regional disputes.
Khalilzad’s Continued Engagement With the Taliban
Although Khalilzad no longer holds an official position in the U.S. government, he has maintained contacts with Taliban officials over the past five years since the group returned to power in Afghanistan.
Khalilzad recently met with Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, in Kabul. He also attended a ceremony marking the signing of a contract between the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and a Saudi company.
On September 5, the Taliban Foreign Ministry said Muttaqi and Khalilzad had discussed “expanding relations between Kabul and Washington.” The ministry also said Khalilzad had praised what it described as the Taliban’s “practical progress” in “stability, security, economic growth and self-reliance.”
Following those meetings, the U.S. State Department said Khalilzad “is not a U.S. government employee and does not represent the United States.”
The department stressed that “all of his activities are entirely personal” and have no connection to the U.S. government.
Khalilzad has also recently commented on developments in Pakistan, describing the country’s situation as “more critical than ever.”
In a post on X, he said that ignoring expert warnings and failing to respond to public demands had pushed Pakistan into a period of deep mistrust, with potentially costly consequences for the country’s future.
According to Khalilzad, Pakistan had faced three fundamental challenges — political, economic and security — over the past two years. He said a crisis of public trust had now emerged as a “fourth ring” of problems, posing a serious threat to the country’s governing structure.
