Obama Administration Sweetens Taliban Prisoner Deal to Restart Peace Talks

(Newsroom America) -- In a bid to restart stalled peace talks with Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, the Obama administration has offered to transfer some detainees from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for a U.S. soldier held by the Taliban in Pakistan, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The revised proposal is a concession from a previous U.S. offer, the report said, and would "alter the sequence of the move of five senior Taliban figures held for years at the U.S. military prison to the Gulf state of Qatar," the report said, citing unnamed sources said to be familiar with the negotiations.

U.S. officials are using the proposal as a good-faith measure with the hopes of opening a door to peace talks between Taliban militants and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The deal calls for the U.S. to send all five Taliban prisoners to Qatar first, before militants would be required to release Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. prisoner of war.

In previous discussions, the U.S. had proposed releasing the Taliban prisoners in two groups, requiring the release of Bowe after the first group of Taliban were released, as a good faith measure.

Bergdahl, 26, disappeared from his base in southern Afghanistan in June 2009. U.S. military officials have said they believe he's being held in Pakistan by Taliban militants.

Qatar is currently hosting a number of senior Taliban officials and has played a key role in nearly two years' worth of negotiations between them and Washington ahead of a planned U.S. military withdrawal at the end of 2014.

U.S. officials have said that before any transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo takes place, they will notify Congress, which is required by law.

The Pentagon, which handles such prisoner transfers, has been concerned about the transfers and subsequent releases, primarily because about one in four released detainees, as noted in a House Armed Services Committee report earlier this year, return to "terrorist activities."

The report said the five senior Taliban officials include Mullah Mohammed Fazl, a deputy minister of defense; Noorullah Noori, a former top military commander; Abdul Haq Wasiq, former deputy intelligence minister; and Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former interior minister.

The identity of the fifth detainee was not known, Reuters reported.

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