Speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington on February 8, Khalilzad said he was "hopeful" a peace deal could be finalized before Afghanistan’s presidential elections in July, but warned that there remained "a lot of work" to do.
"We are at the early stages of a protracted process," said Khalilzad, who has met with Taliban negotiators for a series of talks in the Middle East in recent months.
Khalilzad held six days of talks with Taliban negotiators in the Qatari capital, Doha, last month, culminating in the basic framework of a possible peace agreement.
The agreement calls for the Taliban to prevent international terrorist groups from basing themselves in Afghanistan and for the United States to withdraw its forces from the country.
The Taliban has yet to make concessions on two key U.S. demands -- implementing a cease-fire and agreeing to negotiate directly with Afghan government representatives as part of an Afghan-led, intra-Afghan peace process.