Afghanistan and the Taliban have reached a deal to release two American University teachers, including a U.S. citizen, in exchange for three Taliban members, the Afghan president said Tuesday. Speaking on live television, Ghani said the exchange is intended to help bring “peace and stability” to the country. “In consultations with our international partners, especially the U.S., we have adopted a mechanism and approach to make sure the release of these three men wouldn’t reinforce the . . . enemy and intensify attacks by them,” he said. All three prisoners are members of the deadly Haqqani network, a hard-line faction of the Taliban. They include Mali Khan, Hafiz Rashid and Anas Haqqani, a younger brother of the Taliban’s deputy leader and son of the Haqqani network’s founder. They were held in a government detention center at Bagram air base. Ghani added that the decision was made after consultation with the international community and United States. Ghani said in his speech that Afghan authorities were aware that the health of the western prisoners was deteriorating in custody and their release was one of the unconditional demands in peace negotiations with the Taliban. Both King and Weeks were teaching English at the American University of Afghanistan, a private, nonprofit university in Kabul, when they were kidnapped close to its campus. The university said it was “encouraged” to hear about the “possible release” of the two professors. It urged “the immediate and safe return of our faculty members who have been held in captivity, away from friends and families, for more than three years.”
