The Trump administration has secured the release of an American man who’d been detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan since the latter part of the Biden administration.
The Trump administration’s envoy, Adam Boehler, secured citizen Amir Amiry’s release with mediation help from the Qatari government, according to CBS News.
Amiry’s release follows months of negotiation that started after he was detained by the Taliban last December for reasons that remain unclear.
“Qatar began negotiating for his release in March, at first arranging a meeting between Amiry and the U.S. Special Envoy Adam Boehler during his visit to Afghanistan,” CBS News noted.
Today we welcome home Amir Amiry, an American who was wrongfully detained in Afghanistan. I want to thank Qatar for helping secure his freedom. @POTUS has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) September 28, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked Qatar for its help in a post published to the social media platform X. He added that “POTUS has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home.”
The brother of Mahmood Habibi, another American who remains detained in Afghanistan, expressed joy over Amiry’s release, saying in a statement reported by CNN that he and his family “are grateful to hear that another American has been freed from unjust Taliban captivity.”
“All Americans should be happy for that,” he added. “But my brother is also an American and he has been held by the Taliban since August 10, 2022, without any acknowledgment or ability to speak with his wife.
Does the rest of the world respect the United States more since Trump became president?
“We are grateful that senior officials at the State Department and National Security Council have repeatedly assured us that any deal they do with the Taliban will be ‘all or nothing’ and they have explicitly assured us that they will not leave my brother behind. The Biden Administration did nothing for us. We have faith in President Trump,” he added.
🚨BREAKING: American citizen Amir Amiry has been released from detention in Afghanistan after nearly a year.
The U.S. secured his return with help from Qatar, a crucial diplomatic partner. pic.twitter.com/AOF1DrTp9q
— The Age Of Genz (@TheAgeOfGenZ) September 28, 2025
Hamdullah Fitrat, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban, remarked in a statement that Boehler met with Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday.
He added that Muttaqi had said during the meeting that Amiry’s release demonstrates “that the Government of Afghanistan does not view issues concerning foreign nationals from a political perspective and reiterated that diplomacy provides pathways for resolving such matters.”
Qatari Minister of State Mohammed Al-Khulaifi released his own statement saying that Qatar “remains committed to advancing mediation efforts aimed at achieving peaceful solutions to conflicts and complex international issues.”
The release of Amiry, the fifth U.S. citizen freed by the Taliban this year, came a week after President Donald Trump demanded that the Taliban relinquish Bagram Air Base back to the United States.
“We gave it to [the Taliban] for nothing,” the president said during a Sept. 18 joint news conference in London alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We want that base back.”
BREAKING: President Donald Trump discusses the strategic importance of Bagram Air Base emphasizing its proximity to China’s nuclear facilities.
‘We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back.’ pic.twitter.com/rm7NvFiBvH
— Arshad (@im__Arshu) September 18, 2025
The only concern is that, according to officials who spoke with Reuters, re-occupying the air base could potentially require “more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defenses.”
The air base has been in the control of the Taliban ever since the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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