WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden
named former Republican Senator Richard Lugar on Tuesday to serve as a special
envoy to monitor implementation of a peace deal between the United States and the
Taliban in Afghanistan.
Lugar, 89, who served from 1977 to 2013 and was known for his work on arms
control and nonproliferation, will ensure that the United States continues to
comply with terms of the pact signed in February 2020 during the Trump administration,
the White House said in a statement.
The agreement with the Taliban, which paved the way for peace talks between the
insurgent group and the Afghan government, called for a U.S. troop withdrawal
from Afghanistan in exchange for security guarantees from the militant group and
a commitment to peace negotiations.
Lugar, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985 to
1987 and 2003 to 2007, will work with the U.S. Special Representative for
Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and other senior State Department
officials to oversee the implementation of the peace deal.
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