The Taliban on Thursday launched George Glezmann, an American held since 2022 in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned.
A local of Atlanta, Mr. Glezmann was a mechanic for Delta Air Strains who was detained whereas visiting Afghanistan as a vacationer in December 2022. The State Division had formally designated him a wrongful detainee.
He boarded a Qatari plane in Kabul, the Afghan capital, to fly to Doha with U.S. and Qatari officers on Thursday. Qatar maintains shut ties with the ruling Taliban authorities in Afghanistan and has hosted talks between them and U.S. officers. Negotiations between the primary Trump administration and Taliban insurgents for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan passed off in Doha.
In his announcement of Mr. Glezmann’s launch, Mr. Rubio thanked the Qatari authorities for its assist. Adam Boehler, President Trump’s particular envoy for hostage affairs, took half within the negotiations with the Taliban.
The Taliban toppled the earlier Afghan authorities in August 2021 and returned to energy after President Joseph R. Biden Jr. executed the troop withdrawal that Mr. Trump had negotiated in his first time period. The US doesn’t have diplomatic relations with the Taliban and has imposed sanctions on it. Taliban officers are in search of to normalize relations with the USA.
Mr. Rubio mentioned on Thursday that Mr. Glezmann’s launch was “additionally a reminder that different People are nonetheless detained in Afghanistan.”
The State Division mentioned it was nonetheless in search of the return of six American detainees in Afghanistan and the stays of 1 U.S. citizen. The company has not labeled them wrongfully detained, though one State Division official mentioned the People have been unjustly detained.
A wrongful detention designation means the U.S. authorities tries to prioritize releasing that citizen.
The division has positioned an emphasis on Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who was taken from his car close to his house in Kabul in August 2022, in line with a report by the F.B.I. Mr. Habibi labored for the Asia Consultancy Group, a telecommunications firm primarily based in Kabul.
The Taliban authorities released two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty, in late January because of a prisoner swap organized by the Biden administration. U.S. officers launched Khan Mohammed, a member of the Taliban who had been imprisoned for life in California on costs of drug trafficking and terrorism. Mr. Biden gave a conditional commutation to Mr. Mohammed earlier than he left workplace.
