CIA Director William Burns met secretly with the Taliban’s top figure in Kabul on Monday amid a chaotic U.S. effort to evacuate American citizens and Afghans allied with the U.S. in advance of an Aug. 31 deadline, U.S. officials said.
Details of the meeting weren’t immediately available, but the CIA chief’s crisis diplomacy comes as the Biden administration is considering whether to extend the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Kabul airport beyond the deadline for a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
U.S. officials have warned that without the support of U.S. military bases and logistics, it will be significantly more difficult for the CIA and its sister spy agencies to detect and deter mounting terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan.
Mr. Burns said the CIA would retain “a suite of capabilities,” some already in the region, some that need to be developed, to protect U.S. interests.
The CIA chief has prior experience in covert diplomacy with U.S. adversaries.
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