According to The Washington Post, the Director of the CIA, William Burns, met with the Taliban's factual leader Abdul Ghani Baradar.

US officials familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity divulged that this was the first meeting at this level since the Taliban seized Kabul. 

President Biden deployed Burns, the most decorated diplomat in his Cabinet, during a frenzied attempt to evacuate people from Kabul International Airport, which Biden has described as "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history."

The CIA declined to comment on the meeting, but conversations were anticipated to cover the approaching August 31 deadline for the US military to stop the airlift of US citizens and Afghan allies.

Some allies are exerting pressure on the administration to keep American soldiers in Afghanistan until the end of the month to assist with the evacuation of tens of thousands of US and Western civilians and Afghan collaborators.

Who is Baradar?

Baradar was arrested by the CIA 11 years ago and was imprisoned for 8 years after a joint CIA-Pakistani operation. He served as the Taliban's chief negotiator in peace talks with the United States in Qatar that resulted in an agreement with President Donald Trump's administration on the withdrawal of American forces. In November 2020, he was photographed with former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Baradar, a close companion of the Taliban's original leader, Mohammad Omar, is thought to have tremendous power among the Taliban ranks. He battled Soviet soldiers throughout their occupation of Afghanistan and served as governor of various regions during the Taliban's last reign of the nation in the late 1990s.

However, since the Taliban's recent takeover of the country, Baradar has adopted a more conciliatory tone, stating that the movement seeks "an Islamic system in which all people of the nation can participate without discrimination and live harmoniously with each other in an atmosphere of brotherhood.”

Burns, as agency head, is in charge of an intelligence organization that has trained elite Afghan Special Forces groups who were formerly seen as a formidable force in the nation but have now been involved in extrajudicial executions and human rights violations.

Earlier this year, Burns testified before Congress that neither the Islamic State nor al-Qaeda in Afghanistan has the capabilities to launch strikes within the United States. However, he stated that “when the time comes for the US military to withdraw, the US government’s ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That’s simply a fact.”

On Monday, before the facts of the covert meeting became public, State Department spokesman Ned Price was asked why, given the stakes in Afghanistan, senior US officials had not spoken with Baradar.

“Our discussions with the Taliban have been operational, tactical,” Price stated. “They have been focused largely on our near-term operations and near-term goals . . . what is going on at the airport compound. . . . That is what we’re focused on at the moment.”