WASHINGTON: Washington’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan has stepped down, just as the United States is preparing to send thousands more troops to the region. A senior State Department official told AFP that acting special representative Laurel Miller left the post without a replacement being named. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Miller was returning to a position at the Rand Corporation and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had not yet decided what to do with the post. The office was created when US officials decided that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan are inextricably linked and ought to be dealt with together. Published in Daily Times, June 25th, 2017.