WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): The Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has not taken a decision yet on the future of office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan, his spokesperson said Friday, refuting several media reports that Friday was the last day of this once high-profile office.
“The Secretary has not made a decision about the future of the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” the State Department Spokesperson, Heather Nauert, told PAN.
With the appreciation of the US Department of State, Acting SRAP Laurel Miller completed her detail to the Department from the Rand Corporation on June 23, she said.
“The Department will maintain the Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs Offices, which currently report to the Office of the Special Representative, to address policy concerns and our bilateral relationship with these two key countries,” Nauert said in response to a question.
With respect to the broader issue of special representatives, Nauert referred to the remarks of the US Secretary Rex Tillerson during his recent testimony to the House Appropriations Committee on Foreign Operations.
“We have over 70 specials envoys, special representatives, special ambassadors…one of the things we want to understand is…did we actually weaken our attention to those issues, because the expertise for a lot of these areas lies within the bureaus, and now we’ve stripped it out of the bureau,” Tillerson said during the Congressional hearing.
