Biden called the families of 3 Americans detained by the Taliban to tell them he had not reached an agreement to release them

In a phone call that lasted about 30 minutes Sunday afternoon, President Biden delivered difficult news to the families of three Americans being held by the Taliban. He did not have an agreement with the Taliban to free their loved ones from captivity, despite what US officials described to CBS News as an important offer made by the United States in Doha days earlier. The United States considers Ryan Corbett and George Glezman to be unjustly detained by the Taliban, and describes Mahmoud Habibi, who holds dual American and Afghan citizenship, as “unjustly detained” since 2022.

Ahmed Shah Habibi, Mahmoud Habibie’s brother, told CBS News that Biden made clear during the conversation that he would not agree to the Taliban’s request that the United States release Mohammad Rahim al-Afghani, detained at Guantanamo Bay, unless the Taliban now The government of Afghanistan has released Mahmoud as well. . A National Security Council spokesperson declined to respond to CBS’s inquiry about this specific allegation.

Mahmoud Habibi disappeared in Afghanistan in 2022, and the Taliban denied kidnapping him. In a Public notice Deployed by the FBI in August 2024, the agency said it “believes” Habibie was kidnapped by Taliban military or security forces and “has not been heard from since his disappearance.” The FBI said in its memorandum that Habibie was working as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company when he disappeared.

The Taliban still say they are not detaining Habibie.

“No, we don’t,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News on Monday.

Asked whether Mahmoud had disappeared in Afghanistan, Mujahid said: “It is also not clear because we did not know him before.”

Ahmed Habibi told CBS News: “My family is completely confident that my brother is alive. There are things that neither we nor the United States government can say publicly, but Mahmoud’s case is different from that of other Americans.”

Ahmed Habibi added: “We know that other families are desperate to bring their loved ones home, and I told the president that we want them to come back too.” “But anyone speculating about my brother’s death is just feeding into Taliban claims. We are grateful that President Biden has pledged not to leave Mahmoud behind,” he said. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also made similar assurances, he said.

The FBI declined to comment.

CorbettFluent in the Pashto language, he was working for local NGOs before starting a microcredit and consulting business in Kabul when he was arrested with three companions – one German and two Afghans – during a business trip to northern Afghanistan in 2022.

Glezman is an Atlanta native who was arrested during a tourist visit in December 2022.

Ryan Corbett’s family is publicly calling on Mr. Biden to consider a deal to bring him and Glezman home.

“We hope President Biden has the courage to take the deal in front of him, given that the lives of so many Americans rest on his shoulders,” Erin Pelton, a spokeswoman for the Corbett family, told CBS News.

Corbett’s wife, Anna Corbett, described the call with the president during an appearance on Fox News on Monday.

“He was very kind and sympathetic, but what I heard him say was that he wasn’t going to bring Ryan home, and that was devastating,” Anna Corbett said. She criticized Biden for refusing to agree to the Taliban’s conditions for reaching an agreement. “It was not taken and it is very traumatic for our family.”

She launched a public campaign in recent days urging the incoming administration to press for her husband’s release, and traveled to President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in hopes of making a personal appeal to Trump. Neither Mr. Biden nor Trump has met her yet.

Anna Corbett told Fox News that Trump sent incoming national security adviser and current Florida Rep. Mike Waltz to meet her. She said he spent more than an hour listening to her family’s story. She expressed frustration that it took more than a year to hold a similar meeting with the current National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.

The Taliban movement demands the United States to release Muhammad Rahim Al-Afghani, who is being held indefinitely under the law of war at Guantanamo Bay. A source familiar with his case said the US intelligence community and the Pentagon oppose Rahim’s release and cannot guarantee that he no longer poses a threat to the United States. However, the president can waive this if he decides it is in the United States’ interest to finalize the prisoners. Switch.

Rahim was captured in Pakistan in 2007 by the CIA and was the last detainee sent by the Bush administration to Guantanamo Bay in 2008. He was never charged with war crimes, but the Periodic Review Board deemed his continued detention to be national security. necessity. for him Intelligence file 2016 He describes him as a messenger for Al-Qaeda.

In its statement acknowledging the phone call, the White House also noted that Mr. Biden was able to return American citizens who were detained before the United States exited Afghanistan in 2021. Corbett, Glezman and Habibie were arrested after traveling to Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power. Which The rise of the Taliban This came after a previously negotiated diplomatic agreement Trump administration The withdrawal of US forces, and a sudden strong military attack by the Taliban, caught the Biden administration by surprise, leading to a hasty and chaotic attack American evacuation. Unwilling to be left without US forces, NATO forces also withdrew.

The United States does not officially recognize the Taliban, with its horrific human rights record, as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, but has been in contact with its leaders through American agencies as well as through the Qatari government. Last weekend in Doha, Special Presidential Envoy Roger Carstens and National Security Council official Jane Daskal pressed for an agreement with the Taliban to release the Americans.

A US official described the Doha meetings as unsuccessful but declined to provide details on other individuals the Biden administration was willing to offer to the Taliban as part of a potential trade. The White House described Biden’s efforts as continuing until the end of his term.

Mr. Biden has devoted much of his career to foreign policy; His legacy Extremely important to him. In a speech Monday at the State Department, the president will describe the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan, arguably his greatest foreign policy failure, as successfully ending America’s longest war.

Camilla Chic

She contributed to this report.