Former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan: ‘We all are unhappy’ with ‘ugly final phase’ of withdrawal

Former envoy Zalmay Khalilzad lamented what he described as the "ugly final phase" of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in an interview on "Face the Nation,'' his first since he resigned.

"One reason I left the government, as I wrote in my letter, is that the debate wasn't really, as it should be, based on realities and facts of what happened, what was going on and what our alternatives were," he said. "The decision ultimately was made to put conditions-based aside and follow a calendar basis."

Khalilzad stopped short of criticizing President Biden, but said the withdrawal that he negotiated, known as the Doha Agreement, was meant to hold the Taliban to certain conditions. He explained in his resignation letter Monday that one of those conditions that never came to fruition was that the Taliban negotiate directly with the Afghan government to strike a "power-sharing agreement and a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire."