US officials hold talks in Kabul over Americans detained in Afghanistan

KABUL - US officials held talks on Sept 13 with the authorities in Kabul over Americans held in Afghanistan, the Taliban administration’s foreign ministry said, as the White House pushes to free citizens it sees as wrongly detained abroad.

Mr Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special envoy for hostage response, and Mr Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US special envoy for Afghanistan, met the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.

Both sides will continue talks in future, “particularly regarding citizens imprisoned in each other’s countries”, the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.

The US State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mr Khalilzad, who led peace negotiations with the Taliban before their 2021 takeover of Afghanistan, did not reply to a phone call seeking comment.

Mr Mahmood Habibi, a naturalised US citizen, is the most high-profile American detainee

, Washington says. But the case is particularly complex, as the Taliban denies holding him.

The State Department describes Mr Habibi’s detention as a major impediment to exploring increased engagement with Afghanistan. The Taliban says they have no knowledge of his whereabouts, three years after he disappeared in Kabul.

The Taliban rejected an offer made in 2024 to trade Mr Habibi for alleged Osama bin Laden aide Mohammad Rahim al-Afghani, the last Afghan held in the Guantanamo Bay military prison.

The Taliban administration, which seized power after 20 years of US military intervention in Afghanistan, is not recognised by Washington.

The visiting US officials also met Mr Abdul Ghani Baradar, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, who led the Taliban side in the peace negotiations with Mr Khalilzad.

Mr Baradar’s office said he laid out investment opportunities in Afghanistan, including rare earth minerals, and complained about US sanctions.

He urged the US delegation “to pursue engagement rather than confrontation in Afghanistan, to play its role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan”.

US President Donald Trump has made freeing Americans held abroad a top priority and has secured the release of dozens, including from Afghanistan, Russia and Venezuela.

Mr Trump signed an executive order in September paving the way for Washington to designate countries a state sponsor of wrongful detention and impose punitive measures, including sanctions, on those it says are wrongfully holding Americans.

Mr Boehler visited Kabul in March and took back with him Mr George Glezmann

, an American detained in 2022 while in Afghanistan as a tourist.

In January, the US freed an Afghan convicted by an American court on charges of drug smuggling and terrorism in exchange for two US citizens held in Afghanistan. REUTERS