Taliban releases US citizen

Islamabad (dpa) — Afghanistan’s Taliban-run Foreign Ministry on Sunday announced that it had released a US citizen, Amir Amiri, from prison.

The announcement came as the US presidential envoy for prisoner affairs, Adam Boehler, met Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul — his second visit this month.

According to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry, Muttaqi said the Afghan government does not view the issue of detained citizens from a political angle and emphasized that diplomatic solutions are possible.

Muttaqi added that the release of Amiri was a positive step in relations between the Taliban government and the United States.

He also thanked Qatar for its effective role in facilitating the prisoner’s release.

Details about Amiri, including the reason for his detention and the date of his arrest, were not disclosed.

In March 2025, the Taliban released another US citizen who had been held in Afghanistan for more than two years. Before that, the US and the Taliban conducted a prisoner exchange in which two US citizens were released in return for an Afghan national serving two life sentences in the United States.

In a related development, more recently, the Taliban also released an elderly British couple after several months of detention for violating Afghan laws.