US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with the relatives of three Americans whom the US government wants to bring home from Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
It was not clear from the conversation whether the deal to return them, which is on the agenda, can be completed before he leaves office next week, the Associated Press reported.
Biden's conversation with family members of Ryan Corbett, George Glezman and Mahmoud Habibi took place in the final days of his administration, as officials try to negotiate a deal that could bring them home in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani - one of the remaining prisoners at Guantanamo. Reuters reports that negotiations for the swap have been ongoing since at least July.
Ryan Corbett, who lived in Afghanistan with his family during the fall of the US-backed government in 2021, was kidnapped by the Taliban in August 2022 while on a business trip. George Glezman, an aircraft mechanic from Atlanta, was kidnapped by Taliban intelligence in December 2022 while traveling in the country as a tourist, the AP reports.
U.S. officials believe the Taliban still holds both men, as well as Mahmud Habibi, an Afghan businessman from the United States who worked as a contractor for a telecommunications company in Kabul and also disappeared in 2022. The FBI said Habibi and his driver were kidnapped along with 29 other company employees, but all but Habibi and one other person have been released.
The Taliban has denied holding Habibi, complicating negotiations with the U.S. government, the agency noted.
Biden has told relatives that his administration will not exchange the Guantanamo prisoner unless the Taliban releases Mahmoud Habibi, according to a statement by his brother Ahmad.
If a deal is not reached by Jan. 20, negotiations with the Taliban will have to be led by the Donald Trump administration, and it remains unclear whether it will take the same approach to releasing a Guantanamo detainee, the AP noted.
Only 15 prisoners remain at the U.S. base in Cuba, down from a peak of about 800 detainees during the George W. Bush, the agency recalls.
Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, like two other detainees at Guantanamo, is not charged, but US authorities do not consider him safe to be transferred to other countries. According to the US, Rahim was a direct advisor and courier to Osama bin Laden and other high-ranking al-Qaeda figures and continues to pose a threat to national security.
In September 2022, the Biden administration exchanged an Afghan drug lord convicted in the US for an American civilian held by the Taliban for more than two years, the agency recalls.