The US is lifting millions of prize money with Taliban officials

According to Afghan authorities and senior US officials, the US has raised millions of dollars in bounty for three Taliban officials. This is a major change from the Trump administration to some of the bloodiest jihadists from the US-led war in Afghanistan.

The move comes days after US hostage envoy Adam Bohler made his first visit from a high-ranked American diplomat to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, since the Taliban won a meeting with Afghan representatives in 2021.

Many Taliban officials lifted the meeting in Kabul and subsequent prizes as a major victory for the government, which was almost completely shut down by the US during the Biden administration. The measure also brought new momentum behind the less-sounding voices of the Taliban, who are engaged in internal power struggles, urging governments to ease their policies to gain wider acceptance at the global stage.

His brother Abdul Ajitsi Hakkani and cousins ​​Yahiya Hakkani, Hakkani, will not also appear in the rewards of the Department of Justice website. The prize money was removed on Monday from Sirajuddin Hakkani's FBI wanted poster.

Taliban Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Kani said that after the issue was discussed multiple times with American officials, “the deal with the United States has been confirmed” and that the “deal with the United States has been confirmed” was lifted, and that the prize was lifted.

“This is a huge achievement for the Islamic Emirate,” he adds, referring to the Taliban government.

American officials confirmed the withdrawal of the prize money discussed sensitive diplomacy over terms of anonymity. The Trump administration, including a January social media post by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, revealed that if Americans are not released in Afghanistan, the benefits of Taliban leaders could be reimposed or increased.

The meeting between the Trump administration and Taliban officials in Kabul on Thursday followed a tense and indirect interaction at the beginning. In January, President Trump called for the Taliban to return the $7 billion US military hardware left in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. He threatened to cut all financial aid to the country if it was not returned.

Taliban authorities rejected the concept, noting that the device was important in maintaining the Islamic State affiliates in the region, according to two Afghan officials with knowledge of the issue.

Since the Taliban seized power, the US has led accusations in quarantine governments, imposing the toughest restrictions on women around the world. Biden administration officials stressed that the US will not ease sanctions until these restrictions are lifted.

But the US has become an outlier in its solid approach, as the Taliban led by the ultra-conservative clergy Sheikh Haibatura Ahnzada, made it clear that they would not succumb to outside pressure.

While no country officially recognizes the Taliban as Afghanistan's legal authority, it appeared that more countries in the region and Europe were involved in issues where they could accept the limitations of their impact and find a common foundation.

“The Taliban has developed a trend to carry out trading diplomacy, Quid Pro cours,” said Ibraheem Bahiss, International Crisis Group consultant. The lifting of the US prize suggested that the release of the Americans in Afghanistan “in some way or that the deal had been struck by any good intentions.”

It is also a marked shift in American policy towards Sirajuddin Hakkani, an ambitious political operator who, like a few other Taliban leaders, embraced suicide attacks and was responsible for the most bloody attacks of the US-led war.

In 2011, Hakkani's men launched a 19-hour attack on the US embassy in Kabul. In 2017, his network was behind the truck bombings, killing more than 150 people, mostly civilians.

For the past three years, Hakkani has reimagined his image and has tried to engage with the West through the back channel. He appears to be trying to win foreign support that can help him when he tries to negotiate with Sheikh Haibatura about the Taliban's most controversial policies, including women's restrictions.

In January, the International Criminal Court's Supreme Prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for Sheikh Haibatura and the country's Supreme Court justice for “unprecedented” persecution of women and girls.

“This is a victory for the engagement camp within the Taliban,” Bahis said of the lifting of the prize money. The milder numbers say, “We can go back to the hardliner and say this is the kind of reciprocity we get for the compromise we are claiming.”

Adam Goldman and Safiullah Padshah contributed the report.