Taliban seems to be in a mood to thaw relations with everyone, which includes the big boys Russia and America. The first US delegation since 2021 arrived in Afghanistan as Taliban released an American citizen who was incarcerated for two years in Afghanistan.

Read: Russia’s Re-entry into Afghanistan; Russia to Mediate between Taliban and Pakistan

As per anti-Taliban media, Taliban has buckled under pressure after Trump’s announcement that Afghanistan should return its weapons, and that the Taliban may have accepted the terms within a few weeks after cutting off US aid. The anti Taliban media claims:

🔹 Taliban has released American prisoner.

🔹 Agreed to return all the US weapons left behind in Afghanistan.

🔹 Accepted to let US troops at Bagram Air Base

Albeit the above claims can not be independently verified.

The Taliban Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday the visit to Kabul of Adam Boehler, the US President’s special representative for hostage affairs, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the country’s former representative for Afghanistan affairs. Taliban Foreign Ministry announced that the US delegation met Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul to discuss the release of prisoners. Muttaqi called the US delegation’s visit a breakthrough in relations between the Taliban and Washington. This is the first visit by an American delegation to Afghanistan under Taliban control since the US withdrew from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. Before this the US representatives and Taliban officials had met in Qatar and Norway for negotiations.

The Trump administration has withdrawn Adam Boehler’s nomination to be special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Trump administration officials said he will continue to serve as a special government employee and will not need Senate confirmation. Boehler recently held direct meetings with Hamas for the release of hostages, a move that violated Washington’s policy of not negotiating with groups it considers terrorist organizations.

American prisoner was released from Taliban custody; no word on Mahmoud Shah Habibi’s fate

After meeting the Taliban, Khalilzad posted on X that the Taliban freed US citizen George Glezmann after two years’ detention in Afghanistan as a goodwill gesture. US State Department also confirmed that George Golzman, a US citizen, has been released from Taliban custody. The US State Department says George Goldsman was released through Qatar’s mediation and diplomatic efforts.

Before him, Ryan Corbett and William McKennie were released in exchange for an imprisoned Taliban member in January. The deal to release Corbett and McKennie came in the final hours of Joe Biden’s presidency, when the Taliban agreed to exchange them for Khan Mohammad, a Taliban member who was serving a life sentence for terrorism in the United States. Qatar hosted several rounds of U.S.-Taliban talks and also provided logistical support for the operation to remove the men from Kabul.

Local Afghan media claim that US was also negotiating release of another man–Mahmud Shah Habibi. Taliban accuse Mahmud Shah Habibi of collaborating with the CIA in identifying the hiding place of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed on July 31, 2022, in a US drone strike in the Sherpur area of ​​Kabul. The US State Department has said that American citizens are still being detained in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, China watches on as America and Russia compete to increase their footprint in Afghanistan. Trump says that US should not have left one of it’s biggest bases in Afghanistan, the Bagram base, as it was the closest American base to China’s nuclear sites.