Washington: US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief William Burns has conducted a secret meeting Monday in Kabul with Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. This was reported Tuesday by the ‘Washington Post’.
The Monday meeting, which if confirmed will definitely have been the highest-level encounter between the Islamist group and the Biden administration since the militants’ return to power. The meeting took place as efforts to evacuate thousands of people from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan became increasingly urgent.
Burns is one of US President Joe Biden’s most experienced diplomats. Baradar, who headed the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, is one of the top leaders in the regime that has taken power in Kabul.
However, the Washington Post has said that a spokesperson for the CIA would not confirm the meeting. The person said that the agency ‘never discusses the director’s travels’. The ‘Washington Post’, which cited anonymous US sources for the meeting, did not the content of the discussions between the Taliban co-founder and the CIA boss.
But it said it was likely they revolved around any delay in the deadline for the United States to finish evacuations at the airport of the Afghan capital, where thousands of Afghans, terrified by the return of the Islamists, are still massed with the hope of fleeing the country.
Biden has set an August 31 deadline to finish the chaotic airlift organised by thousands of temporarily deployed US and UK troops. However, he has left the door open to an extension if needed.
But a spokesman for the Taliban warned Monday the hardline Islamist group would not agree to any extension, calling the issue a ‘red line’, with any delay viewed as ‘extending occupation’.
“If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations – the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told ‘Sky News’.