Accessibility links

Breaking News

US Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Pakistan Steps Down


FILE - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gestures while speaking to State Department employees.
FILE - Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gestures while speaking to State Department employees.

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan has stepped down.

Laurel Miller left the office Friday without a replacement being named.

The departure of the special envoy comes at the same time the U.S. is preparing to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan in its continued fight against the Taliban insurgency.

Politico, the news website, reported Friday that diplomats thought the special envoy's office was closing Friday, with its responsibilities being folded into the State Department's South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau.

Later Friday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that he had not yet made a decision about the future of the office. Tillerson has indicated he plans to reduce the number of special envoys in the State Department, which is facing potential budget cuts of up to 30 percent.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG