A Taliban ambassador warned the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday against using threats after saying to impose rewards on Afghanistan’s leaders for their ongoing detention of American citizens,
Last week, two Americans were released in return for Taliban leader Khan Muhammad as part of a prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan.
Before he departed office, Joe Biden’s government negotiated the release of William McKenty and Ryan Corbett. However, Mahmood Habibi and George Glezmann, two further Americans, are still being held by the Taliban. The number of foreigners imprisoned has not been disclosed by the Taliban.
In a post on social media on Saturday, Rubio stated that he have just heard that the Taliban are holding more American hostages than have been reported. We must immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders if this is true, possibly even greater than the one we had on (Osama) bin Laden.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s ambassador to Qatar, warned Rubio that the Afghan government’s aim is to settle disputes amicably through negotiation.
“The jihad (struggle) of the Afghan nation in recent decades is a lesson that everyone should learn from in the face of pressure and aggression.”
After two decades of fighting against NATO and U.S. forces, the Taliban regained control in August 2021 amidst a bloody and disorderly retreat of international forces. In order to negotiate a peace agreement for Afghanistan, Shaheen was a member of the Taliban’s delegation in Doha.
He said that the recent release of Canadian David Lavery, another foreigner, from an Afghan jail was made possible by the “friendly country of Qatar” mediating the matter and having constructive discussions with the Taliban government about it.
Melanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, said earlier Monday that she had a conversation with Lavery when he first arrived in Qatar.
Joly wrote on social media, “He is in good spirits,” and thanked Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the foreign minister and prime minister of Qatar, for assisting in Lavery’s release.
