Shortly after opening its political office in Doha, Qatar earlier this week, the Taliban floated the idea of exchanging U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who has been in captivity since 2009, for the top five Taliban leaders in U.S. custody at Guantanamo. The offer, which has been a longstanding Taliban demand, was first reported by the Associated Press. 

While the U.S. has stripped away its preconditions for the problematic peace talks, the Taliban has continued to insist that the proposed prisoner exchange is a necessary first step for going forward. “First has to be the release of detainees,” Shaheen Suhail, the Taliban’s spokesman, told the Associated Press. “Yes. It would be an exchange. Then step by step, we want to build bridges of confidence to go forward.”