CIA Director Secretly Meets With Taliban Leader As Biden Faces Growing Criticism

President Joe Biden dispatched CIA Director William J. Burns to Kabul, Afghanistan, to secretly meet with the Taliban’s de facto leader, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The Monday meeting with Abdul Ghani Baradar marks the highest-level, face-to-face encounter between the Taliban and the Biden administration since the militants seized the Afghan capital. It also marks Biden’s latest move since he addressed criticism of his handling of the situation in Afghanistan.

The CIA has not commented on the Taliban meeting.

The high-level direct exchange, first reported Tuesday by The Washington Post, is likely to have involved the approaching Aug. 31 deadline for the U.S. military to conclude its airlift of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.

As the deadline approaches, U.S. allies have been pushing the Biden administration to stay in Afghanistan beyond August as tens of thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies continue to flee on what Biden called "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history."

However, new rulers of Afghanistan on Tuesday warned that they would not accept an extension to a looming evacuation deadline.

Before the secret meeting was revealed, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday that “discussions with the Taliban have been operational, tactical” that mainly focused on “near-term operations and near-term goals.”

According to CNN, the Biden administration has been in regular contact with Taliban officials throughout the course of the evacuation process, both on the ground in Afghanistan and in Doha, Qatar. The Pentagon has stated that it is in daily contact with the Taliban at Kabul's airport.

In November, Baradar met in Qatar with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Burns has served as CIA Director since March 19. In mid-April, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee that "there is a significant risk once the U.S. military and the coalition militaries withdraw" from Afghanistan but also added that the U.S. would retain "a suite of capabilities."