Trump’s envoy grilled by lawmakers over women’s rights in Afghanistan

NBC News

By Dan De Luce and Abigail Williams

President Donald Trump’s envoy to Afghanistan faced tough questioning on Tuesday by Democratic lawmakers who accused the administration of jeopardizing the rights of Afghan women in pursuit of a peace deal.

The grilling of U.S. special representative Zalmay Khalilzad came days after the Taliban and the Afghan government entered into peace talks for the first time, a breakthrough that followed a months-long diplomatic push by the Trump administration.

But Rep. Stephen Lynch, chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, and other Democrats said they feared for the future of Afghan women without a firm guarantee from Washington to safeguard their rights.

“How do we demonstrate to the Taliban that the status of women and girls is a major priority in restoring that country’s stability . . . when we don’t list it as a priority in our negotiations but instead, leave it to the Afghans to fight that fight?” Lynch asked the U.S. envoy.

Khalilzad said women’s rights and minority rights were a top priority for the United States, and insisted that the administration had not abandoned their cause. But he acknowledged that the country’s political future would be determined by talks between the Taliban militants and an Afghan government-led delegation.

“At this hearing, I want to assure the Afghan women that we will be with them,” the Afghan-born diplomat said.

He added that the administration “will express ourselves forcefully” on the issue.

The peace talks that got underway on Sept. 12 followed a U.S-Taliban agreement signed in February. Under that deal, Washington agreed to withdraw American troops by May 2021 in return for the Taliban renouncing terrorism and agreeing to direct peace talks with their foes in the Afghan government. The U.S.-Taliban agreement did not address women’s rights.

Lynch cited a letter from 19 members of the Afghan parliament calling on the United States to stand up for women’s rights in any future peace agreement.

The parliament members appealed to Washington to “let this deal be known as one that preserved the rights of every Afghan man and woman. Not a deal that prevents little girls from going to school, not a deal that leads to the destruction of our institutions, not a deal that backtracks on the great achievements of freedom and democracy,” according to the letter obtained by NBC News.

Khalilzad said future U.S. assistance to Afghanistan would depend on what decisions are made in the peace talks, including on the rights of women.

H. R. McMaster, who served as Trump’s second former national security adviser, has sharply criticized the administration’s negotiations with the Taliban, saying the U.S.-backed peace talks were doomed to failure.