Biden called the families of 3 Americans held by the Taliban and said that he did not reach an agreement to release them
In a nearly 30-minute phone call Sunday afternoon, President Biden delivered difficult news to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban. He has not reached a deal with the Taliban to free his loved ones from captivity, despite what US officials described to CBS News as a significant offer the US made in Doha a few days ago. The US considers Ryan Corbett and George Glezmann to have been wrongfully imprisoned by the Taliban and describes Mahmoud Habib, a dual American-Afghan citizen, as “unjustly detained” since 2022.
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Ahmad Shah Habibi, brother of Mahmoud Habibi, told CBS News that during the conversation, Mr. Biden made it clear that he would not agree to the Taliban’s demand for the release of Mohammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay by the United States. Now the Afghan government is releasing Mahmoud. An MTN spokesperson declined to respond to a CBS inquiry about this particular claim.
Mahmoud Habibi disappeared in Afghanistan in 2022 and the Taliban denied abducting him. a public notice In an August 2024 release by the FBI, the agency said it “believes” Habibi was captured by Taliban military or security forces and “has not been heard from since his disappearance.” The FBI said in its statement that Habibi was working as a contractor for a telecommunications company based in Kabul when he disappeared.
The Taliban still say Habibi is not in custody.
“No, we don’t have him,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News on Monday.
When asked whether Mahmoud disappeared in Afghanistan, Mujahid said, “It is not clear, because we did not know him before.”
Ahmed Habibi told CBS News: “My family is absolutely certain that my brother is alive. There are things that neither we nor the US government can say publicly, but Mahmoud’s case is different from the other two Americans.”
“We know that other families are desperate to get their loved ones home, and I told the president that we want them to come home, too,” Ahmed Habibi said. “But anyone who assumes my brother is dead is just feeding off the Taliban claims. We are grateful that President Biden has made a commitment not to leave Mahmoud behind,” he said, adding that national security adviser Jake Sullivan has made similar assurances.
The FBI declined to comment.
Courtesy Corbett family
CorbettFluent in Pashto, he was working for local NGOs before starting a micro-credit and consulting business in Kabul when he was arrested in 2022 along with three associates, a German and two Afghans, during a business trip to northern Afghanistan.
Glezmann is an Atlanta citizen who was detained in December 2022 while on a tourist trip.
James Foley Foundation website
Ryan Corbett’s family is publicly urging Mr. Biden to consider a deal to bring him and Glazemann home.
Corbett family spokeswoman Erin Pelton told CBS News: “We hope President Biden will find the courage to accept the deal before him, given the lives of several Americans on his shoulders.”
Corbett’s wife, Anna Corbett, described the call with the president during an appearance on Fox News on Monday.
“He was very kind and empathetic, but what I heard was that he wasn’t bringing Ryan home and it was just devastating,” Anna Corbett said. He criticized Mr. Biden for refusing to agree to the terms of the Taliban deal. “It’s not working and it’s incredibly crushing for our family.”
She launched a public campaign in recent days to urge the incoming administration to press for her husband’s release, and she traveled to President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence, hoping to personally appeal to Trump. Neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump has yet met with him.
Anna Corbett told Fox News that Trump sent incoming national security adviser and current Florida representative Mike Walsh to meet with her. He said he spent more than an hour listening to his family’s story. He expressed frustration that a similar meeting with current national security adviser Jake Sullivan took more than a year.
The Taliban are demanding that the United States release Mohammad Rahim al-Afghani, who is being held indefinitely under martial law at Guantanamo Bay. U.S. intelligence and the Pentagon oppose Rahim’s release and cannot guarantee that he will no longer pose a threat to the United States, a source familiar with his case said. to change.
Rahim was captured by the CIA in Pakistan in 2007 and was the last detainee sent to Guantanamo Bay by the Bush administration in 2008. He has never been charged with war crimes, but the periodic review board has deemed his continued detention a matter of national security. necessity. His 2016 intelligence profile describing him as a courier for Al Qaeda.
In a statement acknowledging the call, the White House also noted that Mr. Biden was able to bring home the detained US citizens before the US leaves Afghanistan in 2021. Corbett, Glezmann and Habibi were detained after visiting Afghanistan. The return of the Taliban to power. This Taliban supremacy following a diplomatic agreement negotiated by The Trump administration The withdrawal of US troops and a surprisingly strong Taliban military offensive caught the Biden administration off guard, hastily and chaotically US evacuation. Not wanting to be left without US troops, NATO forces also withdrew.
The U.S. does not officially recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, with its appalling human rights record, but maintains contact with its leaders through U.S. agencies and the government of Qatar. Last weekend in Doha, the president’s special envoy Roger Carstens and NSC official Jen Daskal pressed for a deal with the Taliban to free the Americans.
A U.S. official called the Doha meetings a failure, but declined to elaborate on what other individuals the Biden administration is willing to offer to the Taliban as part of a potential trade. The White House described Biden’s efforts as continuing through the end of his term.
Mr. Biden has devoted most of his career to foreign policy, and this part of it his legacy is extremely important to him. In a speech at the State Department on Monday, the president will describe America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, perhaps his biggest foreign policy failure, as a successful end to America’s longest war.
contributed to this report.
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