U.S. offers Guantanamo prisoner exchange for release of three Americans detained in Afghanistan

(MENAFN) According to an insider who spoke to CNN, the United States offered to exchange a prisoner from Guantanamo Bay for the release of three Americans who were detained in Afghanistan.

For months, the US and the Taliban have been negotiating a deal to release Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann, and Mahmoud Habibi, who were all imprisoned in Afghanistan in 2022. Habibi's detention has not been acknowledged by the Taliban.

The United States offered to exchange the three Americans for Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, who was allegedly a "close associate" of Osama bin Laden. Rahim and two other individuals were requested by the Taliban in retaliation.

Another source claims that Roger Carstens, the chief US hostage envoy, made a fresh and "significant" offer to the Taliban while he was in Doha, Qatar, in recent days. They did not elaborate on the new offer.

Americans who have been illegally held overseas, most notably in China and Russia, have been successfully released by the Biden administration. However, the deadly US retreat in August 2021, which saw the Taliban take power, is likely to create political obstacles to efforts to bring the Americans home from Afghanistan.

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