Washington: US intelligence agency CIA chief William J Burns and Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar held a secret meeting in Kabul. According to the news published in the Washington Post, this was the first high-level meeting between the two sections about a week after the occupation of Afghanistan. US President Joe Biden has entrusted this task to his top spy and former Foreign Service official in order to succeed in the effort to evacuate people from Kabul International Airport, which the president recently called the largest in history. and was dubbed the difficult airlift.
Although the CIA has not issued any official statement regarding this meeting, it has been learned from the report that the August 31 deadline fixed for the US military in the discussion, talks of airlift to the American and Afghan allies supporting them. likely to be included.
G-7 countries will discuss Afghanistan
The Biden administration has been under pressure by some of his allies to keep US forces in the country even after August 31 so that the millions of Americans trapped there and citizens of other Western countries can be rescued from the clutches of the Taliban. There is to be a virtual meeting of the G-7 countries (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and America) regarding this, in which British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to demand an extension of the deadline.
However, a Taliban spokesman warned the US and Britain that the extension of the August 31 deadline for the withdrawal of US forces from the warring country could have serious consequences.
Baradar, who spent eight years in a Pakistan prison before being released in 2018, played the role of Taliban’s chief negotiator in peace talks with the US in Qatar. Due to this, there was an agreement with Trump regarding the withdrawal of the American army. According to the Washington Post, it is believed that Baradar, a close friend of the Taliban’s founder Supreme Leader Muhammad Omar, has a significant influence on the Taliban.
The report said Burns made a similar unannounced visit to Afghanistan in April of this year amid concerns about preventing Taliban attacks. As the director, Burns oversees an espionage organization that trained Afghan special forces.
