U.S. envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad resigns

The chief U.S. envoy to the Taliban, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, tendered his resignation Monday in a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. His departure from the job of special representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation goes into effect on Tuesday. He told Blinken that it was "the right time" to leave, "at a juncture when we are entering a new phase in our Afghanistan policy."

CBS News viewed a copy of the letter in which Khalilzad laid out the work he did in brokering a "conditions-based agreement" between the Taliban and the U.S. to end American military engagement in Afghanistan but also acknowledges that the part of the agreement involving the Taliban and Afghan government "did not go forward as envisaged."

Khalilzad explains in the letter that he was asked to rejoin government in 2018, after the "decision had been made to substantially reduce or end" the economic and military burden of America's longest war so that the U.S. would be able to refocus on domestic priorities and China. While Khalilzad began his work during the Trump administration, he was kept on by the Biden administration which shared the desire to withdraw from Afghanistan and embraced his diplomatic work with the Taliban.