CIA Director Holds Secret Meeting With Taliban Leader in Kabul

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns on Monday held a secret meeting with Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul.

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U.S. outlets said the meeting between Burns and Baradar was the highest-level face-to-face engagement between the Biden administration and Taliban to date. The Washington Post first reported the secret meeting, which likely covered the issue of an impending Aug. 31 deadline for the U.S. military to complete its evacuation operation. The CIA declined to comment on the meeting.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that the United States is engaging with the Taliban "on a daily basis through both political and security channels."

“When Mike Pompeo met with the Taliban it was conditions-based, it was from a position of strength, and now we have exactly the opposite… It seems to be negotiating from a position of total weakness,” Rep. Jim Jordan commented, as reported by Fox28.

President Joe Biden is facing pressure at home and abroad to extend the ongoing evacuation beyond Aug. 31, the date he previously set to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid made it clear that the U.S. should withdraw all troops and contractors before the Aug. 31 deadline. He also said Afghan citizens would not be allowed to leave the country through the U.S. evacuation process after the deadline.

The U.S. has been scrambling to evacuate Americans and its Afghan partners from the country since the Taliban entered Kabul on Aug. 15. The White House said that around 21,600 people were evacuated over the last 24 hours.