William Burns, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, had a secret meeting with the Taliban leader in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The meeting took place last Monday, the Washington Post reported. Burns went to Kabul and met with Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar.
CIA chief Burns is one of US President Joe Biden’s most experienced diplomats. On the other hand, Mullah Baradar is the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar. Many see Mullah Baradar as a potential future leader of Afghanistan.
If the news of the meeting between the Taliban co-founder and the CIA chief is true, it will be the first top-level meeting of the Islamist group with the administration led by US President Biden since the fall of Afghanistan last week.
The meeting took place, the Washington Post quoted sources as saying. However, they could not say what was discussed.
However, the report said that there was talk of handing over the Kabul airport to the Taliban on August 31. There are several thousand Afghans at the airport. Their hope is, they will be able to go abroad. But the Taliban is unwilling to allow any more Afghans to leave the country. They are also unwilling to extend the deadline for US troops to leave Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman warned that any troops stationed in Afghanistan after August 31 would cross the red line. At the same time, he warned that there would be consequences for exceeding the deadline.
