An American airline mechanic has been freed by the Taliban after being held in Afghanistan for more than two years.
George Glezmann, who was detained in December 2022 while visiting as a tourist, arrived by plane in Qatar on Thursday evening before travelling back to the US.
His release was confirmed after the Taliban government’s foreign minister hosted US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and other US officials in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The Taliban’s foreign ministry said Mr Glezmann’s release was “on humanitarian grounds” and “a goodwill gesture”, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the deal a “positive and constructive step”.
The meeting between the US delegation and the Taliban amounted to the highest-level direct talks between the two parties since US President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January.
Boehler was accompanied at the meeting by the US’s former envoy to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, according to the Afghan foreign ministry.
Contact between the two governments has usually taken place in other countries since the Taliban regained power in 2021.
Qatar said it facilitated the deal to release Mr Glezmann.
In a post on X, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry added that the deal showed “Afghanistan’s readiness to genuinely engaging all sides, particularly the United States of America, on the basis of mutual respect and interests”.
Rubio said that Mr Glezmann, a 65-year-old Delta Air Lines mechanic, would soon be reunited with his wife, Aleksandra, and thanked Qatar for its “instrumental” role in securing the release.
He was pictured at Kabul airport on Thursday before boarding a flight to Qatar, accompanied by Boehler, Khalilzad and Qatari officials.
The James Foley Foundation, which monitors cases of Americans detained overseas, said Mr Glezmann had “periodic and limited telephone contact” with his wife while detained.
His health was also said to have “deteriorated significantly while he had been in detention”, and he had “medical issues that require immediate care”.
Rubio added that Mr Glezmann’s release was “also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan”.
One of those US citizens is believed to be Mahmood Habibi, who was detained in August 2022.
Before Trump took office in January, two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty, were released from Afghanistan in exchange for an Afghan imprisoned in the US.
Khan Mohmmad was serving a life sentence in a federal prison in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.
By BBC News
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