US investigating possible plot of killing peace negotiator Khalilzad

US officials have confirmed to The Daily Beast that the US is “taking seriously a shocking claim from its enemy in Afghanistan that the Taliban foiled an ISIS plot to assassinate a Zalmay Khalilzad.

The Daily Beast reports, “Officials said they’re investigating an assertion, made in a recent Taliban video, that the local branch of the so-called Islamic State recruited two men to murder Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department’s envoy in charge of negotiating peace with the Taliban.”

A State Department spokesperson has confirmed to the Daily Beast that the US officials are investigating the video, noting, “The US Government takes any potential threat against US personnel seriously.”

According to the report, the Afghan government authorities are also investigating the claim.

The report writes, “The video, a purported confession from two blindfolded young men in Taliban custody, claims that elements within the US-backed Afghan government’s National Directorate of Security facilitated the failed plot against Khalilzad.”

According to the Daily Beast, the NDS is known to oppose the Khalilzad-negotiated peace deal with the Taliban; therefore, the group has an incentive to drive a deeper wedge between Washington and Kabul.

A former head of the NDS has publicly denied any complicity, calling it a “fake.”

A former senior US diplomat has said “Khalilzad is much more popular with the Taliban than with the Afghan government.”

The diplomat has added that Khalilzad is getting close (to achieve peace) and people whose interests are threatened by it are concerned.

According to the report, the video, made by the Taliban intelligence operation, was released on Taliban social media accounts on June 12.

“The level of detail in the video, and accounts provided to The Daily Beast by Taliban officials as well as Western diplomats and Afghan government officials, suggest just how dense and menacing that fog has become,” the report writes.