WASHINGTON, Mar 28 :The former United States envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, does not represent U.S. policy, a State Department spokesperson has said, asserting that the Afghan-born diplomat speaks in his \u201cpersonal capacity\u201d.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson, Vedant Patel, was responding to a question from a Pakistani TV channel reporter about the perception that his recent tweets about the political situation in Pakistan reflect the views of the U.S. government.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Khalilzad is a private citizen, and any social media activity or comments or tweets that you might reference, those are done in his private capacity, does not represent U.S. foreign policy, and he does not speak for this administration,\u201d Patel told reporters at his daily news briefing, as he set the record straight.<\/p>\n
Asked about the political crisis in Pakistan in which death threats were being held, the spokesperson urged all sides to respect the rule of law and allow the people to democratically determine their country\u2019s leadership in accordance with the constitution and laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have previously stated that any implication of violence, harassment, or intimidation has no place in politics, and as we do with our partners all around the world, we encourage all sides in Pakistan to respect the rule of law and allow the people of Pakistan to democratically determine their own country\u2019s leadership pursuant to their own constitution and laws,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, Mar 28 :The former United States envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, does not represent U.S. policy, a State Department spokesperson has said, asserting that the Afghan-born diplomat speaks in his \u201cpersonal capacity\u201d. The spokesperson, Vedant Patel, was responding to a question from a Pakistani TV channel reporter about the perception that his recent tweets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-322352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n