THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Taliban say they’re ready to release US prisoners. But which ones?

For months, US and Afghan officials have secretly negotiated the release of US detainees — a priority for President Donald Trump and a non-negotiable prerequisite for any further diplomatic engagement with the Taliban.

Yet even as at least five US prisoners have been freed from Afghanistan over the past year, talks have stalled over the fate of remaining detainees, according to three people involved in the negotiations.

While several US prisoners remain in custody, Afghan officials say the release of the last Afghan inmate at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, rests with the United States and should be part of any further deal.

The Guantánamo inmate’s case and the whereabouts of a US citizen in Afghan custody remain a central flash point between the Trump administration, which accuses Afghanistan of hostage diplomacy, and a Taliban government that denies those accusations while it seeks recognition from the United States.

“We want these two American detainees to be released, and, at the same time, the fate of our detainee who is in Guantánamo should be made clear,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, said in an interview with The New York Times in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar — the first time Afghan officials are making their demand public. “Our prisoner should be released.”

The Afghan detainee, Muhammad Rahim, is accused of acting as a courier and interpreter for Osama bin Laden within al-Qaida.

Why the Taliban have decided to comment publicly on a potential prisoner swap is unclear. But it signals an impasse in negotiations with the Trump administration, which has publicly demanded the release of at least three Americans.

The Taliban say they have only two — identified by US officials as Dennis Walter Coyle, an academic held since last January, and Polynesis Jackson, a former US Army soldier whose reasons for being in the country remain murky.

Afghan officials say they do not know the whereabouts of a third US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, who the FBI says was arrested in Afghanistan in 2022 shortly after the CIA killed Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaida’s leader, in Kabul.

Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said no American prisoner was being held for bargaining purposes. “We support finding a solution to this issue as soon as possible,” Muttaqi said in a subsequent interview with the Times in Kabul.

“We never arrest someone to make deals with their country.”

Muttaqi added, “We want progress in all areas with the United States,” including the reopening of the US Embassy in Kabul and strengthened security cooperation.

The United States does not formally recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate authority, but US envoys have travelled several times to Afghanistan over the past year to secure the release of American detainees.

At least four have already been freed under the second Trump administration, according to the White House — none of them as part of prisoner swaps.

A participant in the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing release efforts, said the Trump administration would not consider any further public engagement until all remaining U.S. citizens were freed.

The State Department declined to discuss the case of Rahim, but the administration’s position was unequivocal.

“We know the Taliban abducted and detained Mahmood Habibi over three years ago,” a State Department spokesperson said. “The Taliban should immediately release Dennis Coyle, Mahmood Habibi and all Americans detained in Afghanistan and end its practice of hostage diplomacy.”

The previous administration had offered Rahim in a prisoner swap that included Habibi, but the Taliban rejected that offer, U.S. officials say.

Instead, the Taliban government freed Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty last January in exchange for Khan Mohammed, a convicted drug dealer who was released from a US federal prison. The Taliban later freed three other Americans — George Glezmann and Faye Hall in March; and Amir Amiry in September.

A senior US official added that Rahim would not be part of any future deal despite the Taliban government’s demands.

Habibi’s brother, Ahmad, said officials from the Trump administration had promised him that there would be no deal for Rahim until Habibi was returned.

“We have proof the Taliban’s GDI arrested him, so they are only prolonging things by refusing to admit it,” Ahmad Habibi said about the General Directorate of Intelligence, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.

The Afghan intelligence services didn’t respond to requests for comment.

An Afghan official with direct knowledge of the negotiations said that the Taliban had released US detainees last year, and the United States had lifted bounties on senior Afghan officials, as part of a framework meant to settle the prisoners’ issue.

But recent developments, including the deadly attack on two National Guard troops that US officials say was committed by a 29-year-old Afghan man near the White House in November, had brought the negotiations to a stalemate.

The Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity to comment on the negotiations, said the Taliban would be willing to discuss Habibi’s fate only after other US detainees and Rahim had been released. Habibi was never part of the initial framework agreed upon last year, the official added, but Rahim was.

The State Department lists Coyle, who is from Colorado, as a wrongful detainee, and his family has taken a more visible role in advocating for his release.

The circumstances surrounding the detention of Jackson, like Habibi’s, are more opaque.

On Tuesday, Trump said in a television interview about Coyle’s detention by the Taliban, “I’m not happy about them holding anybody, especially if he’s not guilty of anything.”

Rahim has been held in Guantánamo since 2008 and is the last Afghan citizen there. The United States says Rahim, now 60, had advance knowledge of al-Qaida attacks.

He was subjected to “extensive use of the CIA’s enhanced-interrogation techniques,” including sleep deprivation that once lasted nearly six days, according to the Senate Committee’s Report on the CIA’s Use of Torture.

Rahim’s family says he did not do anything wrong and has asked the Taliban administration to secure his release.

He has never been charged with crimes while held in Guantánamo Bay.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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