The White House said President Joe Biden spoke to the families of three Americans held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 and promised to do everything possible to bring them home as he heads into the final days of his presidency.
Biden "spoke with the families of Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann, and Mahmood Habibi -- Americans unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022 -- this afternoon," the White House said on January 12.
"The president and the families discussed the U.S. government's continuing efforts to reunite these three Americans with their families. The president emphasized his administration's commitment to the cause of bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained overseas," the statement added.
Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter, last week reported that the administration has been negotiating with the Taliban since at least July concerning a U.S. offer to release the three Americans in exchange for Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, a high-profile prisoner held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
SEE ALSO: Oldest Guantanamo Bay Prisoner Released To PakistanAfghani has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2008 and is believed to have been an associate of Osama bin Laden, the late founder of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.
Aid worker Corbett, 40, and Habibi, 37 -- who led the Afghan Aviation Authority under the previous Afghan government -- were detained separately in August 2022, a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan from the Western-backed government. Glezmann, now 66, was detained later in 2022 while visiting as a tourist.
Family members who spoke with Biden said they were told no deal had yet been reached.
Habibi's brother, Ahmad Habibi, was on the call, and welcomed the president's efforts.
"President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go," he told Reuters.
"He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother."
Reuters quoted sources as saying the Taliban, which has not acknowledged holding Habibi, had countered with a proposal to exchange Glezmann and Corbett for Rahim and two other people.
A U.S. Senate report called Rahim an "Al-Qaeda facilitator" and said he was arrested in Pakistan in June 2007 and turned over to the CIA the next month and eventually transferred to Guantanamo Bay.
Biden, who will depart the White House on January 20, last week ordered the release of 11 Guantanamo detainees to Oman, reducing the prison population there to 15.
Biden's administration has been working to reduce the number of detainees, with a goal of closing down the prison, which is on a U.S. naval base on the island of Cuba. At its peak in 2003, it held an estimated 680 prisoners.
President George W. Bush opened the prison in January 2002 to hold international terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.