The American envoy responsible for hostages Adam Beller stated today during a rare visit of an American official to Kabulthat the US will exchange prisoners with the Taliban government.

“Adam Beller, regarding the issue of citizens who are imprisoned in Afghanistan and the US, said the two countries would exchange their prisoners,” the Taliban government’s office said in the office of the Taliban government. Abdulafter meeting them.

A specific date has not been announced at this time for this exchange, which has not yet commented on Washington.

At least one American citizen, the Mahmund Habibibelieved to be held in the Afghanistan. The US is offering $ 5m pay for any information that will lead to its location, but the Taliban refuses to be involved in its disappearance in 2022.

The State Department He considers Habibi’s booking one of the key issues that prevents Washington from considering getting closer relationships with Afghanistan. The Taliban, however, stress that they do not know where he is, three years after he disappeared from Kabul.

Last year Taliban rejected a proposal to exchange Habibi with Mohammad Rahim alhganithe alleged assistant of Osama bin Laden, the last Afghan held in Guantanamo’s prison.

In March another American, the George Glezmann The Taliban was released for two years, released after Beler’s visit to Kabul.

Today, this US official, accompanied by the former US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmai Halilzad, discussed the issue of prisoners with the leader of Afghan diplomacy Amir Khan Mutaki.

Dozens of foreigners have been arrested by the Taliban authorities since August 2021, when they returned to power.

This week Russia announced the repatriation of a Russian ethnographer who was held in Afghanistan for almost two months.

“He was held in Afghanistan by July, accused of various offenses (…) and was released by the Afghan authorities at the request of the Russian side, given friendly relations” between Afghanistan and Russia, the only country in the world that has recognized the authorities.

In July 2024, Kabul had pointed out that he was discussing with Washington the issue of prisoners, and in January two Americans had released in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Han Mohammed, who had been convicted of miners in the US.

The Taliban government reiterates that it wants to have good relations with other countries, mainly with the US.

Today the Afghan Foreign Ministry again called for “the restoration of normal relations” between Washington and Kabul, considering that there were no “unsolved problems in bilateral relations”.

Many countries, such as Pakistan, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, have kept their embassies open in Kabul after 2021.