General Mckenzie: Doha agreement was Washington’s biggest mistake

General Frank McKenzie, the former commander of the United States Central Command, criticized the consequences of the Doha Agreement, stating that Washington made its most egregious mistakes during these negotiations.

In a new interview with CBS, the former commander of the United States Central Command stated that the Doha Agreement led to “the destruction of the government in Afghanistan.”

The U.S. negotiating team, led by Zalmay Khalilzad, and the Taliban negotiating team, led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, signed the Doha Agreement in February 2020 after months of negotiation.

Following the signing of this agreement, the process of withdrawing foreign forces led by the U.S. from Afghanistan, which was part of the Doha Agreement, began and was completed by the end of August 2021, when the Taliban had taken control in Afghanistan.

Before the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan was complete, the then-Afghan government, led by Ashraf Ghani, collapsed. With the president fleeing on August 15, Taliban forces had taken control of nearly all provinces.

This process happened very quickly and sparked widespread international reactions. Many described the manner of the foreign forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan as “disastrous” with devastating consequences, and General Frank McKenzie stated in his interview with CBS that the Doha Agreement “destroyed the government in Afghanistan.”

He also mentioned that both former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, who oversaw the signing and implementation of this agreement, focused on the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

According to the retired general, America’s egregious mistake in negotiating with the Taliban was that Washington “treated it as a timetable for the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan.”

In his interview, McKenzie referred to the Doha Agreement as an “operational mechanism” that led to “the destruction of the government in Afghanistan,” while, according to him, the U.S. could have achieved a better outcome.