US Special Envoy for Prisoner Affairs and former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, ZalmayKhalilzad, visited Kabul and held talks with the Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, regarding the issues of the release of prisoners. The meeting was announced by Deputy Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Taliban, Zia Ahmad Takal via press release on X on March 20, 2025.
Amir Khan Muttaqi and Zalmay Khalilzad discussed the progress on prisoner issues between the Taliban and the US, which both stated as a good step toward building trust. Muttaqi mentioned that he considers a meeting with the US representative as a positive development in their relations after more than two decades of animosity.
During the meeting, he also emphasized that the group seeks to build relations with other countries, the West and the East. Both sides agreed that the US and the Taliban should aside their decades-old enmity and work towards building constructive political and economic ties.
The meeting came at a time when Delta Airlines mechanic George Glezmann was released after two and a half years of captivity in Afghanistan as announced by the US State Department on March 20, 2025. The State Department stated that President Trump will continue to work to free other remaining captives in Afghanistan.
The US and Taliban share political and military animosity since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime and established the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which was itself overthrown by the returning Taliban forces in 2021.
A couple of decades of warfare in Afghanistan failed to curb Taliban and ended with the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan by August 30, 2021. Nevertheless, the US engaged in talks with Taliban since 2021 from time to time regarding the release of American prisoners held by Taliban. Trump, before elected for a second term in office, proposed the idea of regaining Bagram Airfield in exchange for trade deal with the Taliban.
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