James Dobbins steps down

WASHINGTON: The US special envoy for Afghanistan is stepping down, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced Wednesday in a move that comes at a key juncture in troubled US-Afghan ties.

James Dobbins is retiring after just over a year in office and will be replaced by his deputy Dan Feldman, Kerry said in a statement.

The shuffle comes as the two candidates to be Afghanistan’s next president wrangle over alleged fraud in the elections.

Dobbins’s “relationship with President Karzai was invaluable, particularly at difficult moments,” Kerry said, announcing the departure of his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dobbins “has played an outsized role on the ground negotiating the BSA, making preparations for historic elections, growing our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan, and planning for a transition for the Afghan people after more than a decade of progress,” Kerry said.

He will be “forever known as the guy who raised the first flag over our embassy in Kabul after the fall of the Taliban.”

Feldman will now take over the post once held by late diplomat Richard Holbrooke.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2014.