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WASHINGTON: Zalmay Khalilzad, to be named the new US ambassador to
the United Nations, is a blunt diplomat who helped President George
W. Bush lay the foundation for regime changes in Afghanistan and
Iraq.
If confirmed by the Senate, Khalilzad, a Sunni
Muslim, will replace controversial UN envoy John Bolton, who
resigned the post in December after failing to secure necessary
Senate endorsement.
Currently US ambassador to Iraq, Khalilzad
failed to bring about reconciliation among the Shiites, Sunnis and
Kurds, one of his primary duties when he took the job in June 2005.
Like the sharp-tongued Bolton, the
Afghan-American is allied with administration hawks led by
Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Known in some Washington circles as “King Zal,”
his potential role as top US diplomat in the UN comes at a time when
the world body is still struggling to implement contentious
resolutions on the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea as well
as the Darfur and Lebanon crises.
Before Iraq duty, the 55-year-old diplomat was
ambassador to Afghanistan after having paved the way for the ouster
of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
He was instrumental in setting up the governing
structure in Afghanistan. He also oversaw reconstruction and guided
President Hamid Karzai through the first presidential elections in
2005.
The hard-charging Khalilzad’s prominent role
as Bush’s special representative in Kabul once caused discomfort
in the State Department, which was nominally in charge of Afghan
policy.
He also angered Pakistan President Pervez
Musharraf by accusing Islamabad of doing little to flush out Osama
bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks,
and other Islamic militants believed hiding along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Unlike his smooth stint in Afghanistan, where he
had to cut deals with tribal chiefs and warlords, Khalilzad’s Iraq
mission was rocky.
He was dispatched to Baghdad even before a
government could be created more than two months after landmark
January 30, 2005, elections.
But he knew the Iraqi political terrain quite
well, having served as Bush’s special envoy to “free Iraqis”
during a period that set the stage for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq
before the US-led invasion in March 2003.
One of the few Arabic speakers among the top
administration officials, Khalilzad helped in the drawing up of
Iraq’s new constitution and holding of a nationwide referendum and
elections for a permanent government.
--AFP
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