House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) announced on Thursday that he wants peace negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad to testify to the committee, with an eye toward understanding the negotiated deal with the Taliban.
Engel said he’d asked Khalilzad to testify in February, and again in April, with no response. He suggested that he might use a subpoena to bring him in to try make sure Congress gets some answers.
The specifics of the US-Taliban deal are shrouded in a lot of uncertainty, with administration officials offering very few specifics on what exactly the deal says, and many arguing they aren’t in a position to do so.
With Congressional Democrats largely aligned against withdrawing from Afghanistan, it’s likely that any testimony Khalilzad gives will face a hostile audience, and that is likely a big part of why he’s so far ignored calls to testify.
Question, is this to ensure proper oversight or the try and scuttle or postpone the deal prior to the 2020 election. Sadly, I think it may be an attempt for the latter.
The House doesn’t get oversight on this sort of matter.