Final Bid By Biden: Afghan Taliban Announces Prison Exchange With US
Doha, Qatar: Afghanistan’s Taliban government announced prisoner swap with United States. Taliban said the swap was brokered by Qatar. The swap happened during the last hours of former President Joe Biden’s administration. Two Americans held in Afghanistan prison were released in exchange of a Taliban member held in US prison, serving life sentence. The American citizens were identified as Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, and he Taliban member was identified as Khan Mohammed who was convicted in 2008 on narco-terrorism charges.
Release of the prisoners are said to be the result of two years of negotiations and multiple trips to Doha by White House and State Department officials to meet with Taliban representatives, a Biden National Security Council spokesperson said. Reportedly, the CIA was also involved in the discussions and Tuesday’s operation.
“An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammad imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement, adding Mohammad had been serving a life sentence after being arrested “almost two decades ago”.
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There was a little delay in the exchange which is partly due to unexpected bad weather in Washington and Kabul.
Mohammed was flown by officials from the US to Doha. Qatar, which also mediated a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel recently, traded the prison exchange by hosting several rounds of US negotiations with the Taliban and also provided logistical support to the operations to get the two American men out of Kabul, reported CNN.
Biden administration’s plan for the trade with the Taliban was communicated to Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz by Biden’s adviser Jake Sullivan.
As per the report, Biden’s envoy for hostage affairs, Ambassador Roger Carstens, had been dispatched to Doha along with Mohammed.
Carstens’ time in government was also supposed to end when Trump came into office, but he was already on the move during Monday’s presidential transfer of power. A senior Biden administration official declined to say exactly where Mohammed would be handed over to the Taliban and the Americans would be picked up.
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One source familiar with the happening told CNN that the Taliban preferred to let Trump take the win for the deal.
“They [the Taliban] didn’t want the news to die during the inauguration and they want the Trump administration to have the credit”, the outlet quoted.
The Biden administration expressed disappointment that the two other Americans, Glezmann and Habibi, weren’t handed over, and added that they couldn’t turn down the offer for at least Corbett and McKenty.
