US citizen George Glezmann released from detention in Afghanistan

KABUL: Taliban authorities on Thursday freed US citizen George Glezmann after more than two years of detention, in a deal brokered by Qatar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced.

The release was announced after the Taliban government’s foreign minister hosted US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and other US officials in the Afghan capital. “Today, after two and a half years of captivity in Afghanistan, Delta Airlines mechanic George Glezmann is on his way to be reunited with his wife, Aleksandra,” Rubio said in a statement.

“George’s release is a positive and constructive step. It is also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan,” he added.

Glezmann was en route to Qatar, a source with knowledge of the release told AFP.

Ahead of the announcement, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi hosted Boehler, who was accompanied by Washington’s former envoy to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, the ministry said.

“Today is a good day,” Khalilzad said on X.

The Taliban authorities decided to free Glezmann on “humanitarian grounds” and as a “goodwill gesture”. The prisoner release reflects “Afghanistan´s readiness to genuinely engaging all sides, particularly the United States of America, on the basis of mutual respect and interests”, a foreign ministry statement said.

The US delegation was the first from Washington since US President Donald Trump took office in January, foreign ministry spokesman Hafiz Zia Ahmad told AFP. Contacts between the two sides since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 has usually taken place in third countries. At least one other American, Mahmood Habibi, is detained in Afghanistan.