Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns met in person with top Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar during a low-publicity rendezvous in Kabul on Monday.
Burns, a former diplomat and deputy secretary of state, traveled to the war-torn capital city of Kabul in Afghanistan for undisclosed negotiations with Baradar, according to reports first shared by the Washington Post. While the CIA has remained tight-lipped about the details of the meeting, Burns’s position as CIA director and a former high-ranking member of the State Department makes him the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet with the Taliban’s top brass in the flesh.
Word of the high-level meeting between Burns, a longtime diplomat now heading the spy agency under Biden, came as the U.S. mulled extending the Aug. 31 deadline to evacuate Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman warned of “consequences” if the U.S. remained in Kabul into September, but the massive evacuation effort is proving difficult, and the military is running out of time to pull out American government workers, citizens, contractors, and Afghans who served the U.S. over the last 20 years.
WHITE HOUSE FIGHTS TO REGAIN CONTROL OF ITS MESSAGE ON AFGHANISTAN
The Taliban is tightening their grip on Kabul as more U.S. citizens and Afghan allies attempt to flee the increasingly hostile nation. Reports of beatings at checkpoints outside the airport have begun to pour in from Kabul, and the U.S. Embassy in the city has stated that it cannot guarantee safe passage to the airport.
The violence continues to escalate — one Afghan soldier was shot and killed in the airport by an “unknown hostile actor.”
The Taliban has successfully taken control of the entire country after a swift and successful military campaign, cutting through the nation to the heart of Kabul. After minor victories by the Afghan army reclaiming a handful of northern districts, the Taliban re-cemented their hold there as well.
Burns was sworn in as CIA director on March 19 of this year. He holds the rank of career ambassador in the U.S. Foreign Service with 33 years of experience in the field.
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Baradar is the de facto leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan and was previously arrested by the CIA in 2010.
The CIA declined to comment to the Washington Examiner.
