A senior adviser to former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani has claimed that secret annexes to the 2020 Doha Agreement between the United States and the Taliban outlined the transfer of power, sidelining the Kabul government in the process.
Fazl Mahmood Fazli, who also headed the Office of Administrative Affairs under Ghani, made the remarks in an article for Afghanistan International titled “From the 1990s to Taliban Oppression: Lessons from Afghanistan’s Political Failures and the Way Forward.”
Fazli wrote that prior to the collapse of the republic in August 2021, Washington prevented Afghan air force transport and combat aircraft sent abroad for maintenance from returning home. By July of that year, some Afghan officers had already been told they and their families would be relocated to the United States, he said.
Citing these moves, Fazli argued the republic order's downfall was primarily political, not military, because “ownership of the system did not rest with Afghans.” He said the government had been marginalised during the Doha negotiations, while “warlords” speculated in foreign capitals about their future roles in a new Taliban-led order.
He also noted that just two months before the fall, more than 100 American logistics contractors left Afghanistan without handing over responsibilities, creating an abrupt supply crisis for Afghan security forces.
While acknowledging that the Ghani administration could have sought internal consensus, Fazli maintained such efforts were futile, given the absence of widely accepted laws and political foundations and the overwhelming influence of the United States.
