Thursday the Taliban released George Glezmann, an American held since 2022 in Afghanistan, said the secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Originally from Atlanta, Mr. Glezmann was a mechanic for Delta Air Lines who had been detained while visiting Afghanistan as a tourist in December 2022. The State Department had officially designated him an illegal prisoner.
He has been the edge of a Qatari plane in Kabul, the Afghan capital, to fly to Doha with us and officials of Qatari on Thursday. Qatar maintains close ties with the Taliban government in power in Afghanistan and has hosted interviews with each other and the US officials. The negotiations between the first administration of Trump and the Taliban insurgents for a retreat of the US troops from Afghanistan took place in Doha.
In his announcement of Glezmann’s release, Rubio thanked the Qatar government for his help. Adam Boehler, special envoy of President Trump for hostage affairs, took part in negotiations with the Taliban.
The Taliban overturned the previous Afghan government in August 2021 and returned to power after President Joseph R. Biden Jr. performed the withdrawal of the troops that Trump had negotiated in his first term. The United States have no diplomatic relations with the Taliban and have imposed sanctions. Taliban officials are trying to normalize relationships with the United States.
Thursday Rubio said that the release of Mr. Glezmann was “also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan”.
The State Department stated that he was still looking for the return of six American prisoners to Afghanistan and the remains of an American citizen. The agency did not unjustly detained, even if an official of the State Department said that the Americans were unjustly detained.
An unjust detention designation means that the United States government tries to give priority to the liberation of that citizen.
The Department has placed the emphasis on Mahmood Shah Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who was taken from his vehicle near his house in Kabul in August 2022, according to an FBI report Mr. Habibi worked for the Asia Consultancy Group, a telecommunications company based in Kabul.
The Taliban government released two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty, at the end of January following a prisoner exchange organized by the Biden Administration. US officials released Khan Mohammed, a member of the Taliban who had been imprisoned for life in California on charges of drug trafficking and terrorism. Mr. Biden gave a conditional switching to Mr. Mohammed before leaving the assignment.