US and Taliban hold prisoner exchange talks

The United States is in talks with the Taliban to swap detained Americans held in Afghanistan for the Guantanamo prisoner.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States is offering Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, a high-ranking al-Qaeda activist imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, for the exchange.

The prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was established in 2002 to hold terrorist suspects.

Muhammad Rahim al Afghani is proposed to be exchanged for three US citizens: Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann, and Mahmoud Habibi, who were captured in 2022.

The United States has previously conducted exchanges with the Taliban.

In 2014, U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held captive by the Taliban for almost five years, was released as part of a deal that included the release of five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. Sgt. Bergdahl was the only U.S. serviceman to have been held captive by the Taliban.

Relations with the Taliban

Now, the Taliban, which has held full power in Afghanistan since 2021, hopes to improve relations with Washington after the Donald Trump administration came to power in the US.

“We are open to positive engagement with the world, including the United States,” Suhail Shaheen, head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, stated.

He based his expectations on the fact that during Trump’s first presidency in 2020, the US administration signed a peace agreement with the Taliban, which paved the way for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

“It seems that Mr. Trump is more pragmatic (than President Joe Biden – Ed.), and I think we will be able to be more realistic in our approaches to solving problems,” Shaheen pointed out.

According to him, Afghanistan under Taliban rule could cooperate with the United States to extract natural resources and in other areas.

The United States and other countries continue imposing severe sanctions on the government of the radical Islamist Taliban for its violation of women’s rights and oppression of other groups of Afghans, while China and Russia are building closer relations with the Taliban.