| GEO World | | No plan to put Khalilzad as country’s chief executive: Afghanistan | Updated at: 1311 PST, Tuesday, May 19, 2009
KABUL: Afghan president Hamid Karzai has no plan to install former U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as "chief executive" of his country, a spokesman said on Tuesday, denying a report in the New York Times.
The U.S. newspaper, citing unidentified U.S. and Afghan officials, said Khalilzad, an Afghan-born U.S. citizen who served as former President George W. Bush's ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations, was discussing taking a powerful post under Karzai.
Because of his influence, Khalilzad was known by many Afghans as Kabul's "Viceroy" when he served as Washington's top diplomat to Afghanistan.
The newspaper described Khalilzad's proposed future role as "chief executive officer of Afghanistan". It quoted a senior U.S. official as saying the post would allow the American diplomat to serve as "a prime minister, except not prime minister because he wouldn't be responsible to a parliamentary system".
A spokesman for Karzai said the report was false.
"We are not aware of this. We cannot confirm this. There is no truth in it," spokesman Siyamak Herawi said.
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