Afghanistan: Taliban Brazenly Parades Fighters Released from Prison
The Taliban released a set of triumphant propaganda photos Wednesday showing fighters in Afghanistan released from prisons under the U.S.-brokered peace deal with Kabul.

The Taliban released a set of triumphant propaganda photos Wednesday showing fighters in Afghanistan released from prisons under the U.S.-brokered peace deal with Kabul.

Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday signed a decree to release 1,500 Taliban prisoners beginning on March 14, a step the Taliban insists is necessary before talks between the Islamist insurgents and the Afghan government can continue.

The prospects for the peace deal brokered between the United States and the Taliban looked grim less than 24 hours after it was announced, as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani balked at releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners as specified in the agreement, and the Taliban responded by announcing it would resume “operations” against the Afghan government.

Iran indicated Monday it wants to swap more prisoners with the United States following the release of Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani, traded for Chinese-American scholar Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton.

The Taliban released two Western professors, an American and an Australian, on Tuesday after more than three years in captivity. In exchange, the Afghan government released three Taliban jihadists and flew them to Qatar.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made an offer Wednesday for a prisoner exchange with the United States, without specifying which prisoners the Islamic Republic wants.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal found that the Trump administration secretly reached out to the Iranian regime in December and proposed creating a direct channel with them to negotiate for the release of U.S. and Iranian nationals being held by both countries in what would be a potential prisoner swap.

Hamas has accepted an Egyptian proposal for a prisoner swap with Israel and is awaiting Jerusalem’s response to the offer, the terror group’s leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, said Thursday night, according to Channel 2 news.

Egypt has presented Hamas with a proposal that would allow prisoner exchange negotiations to begin between Israel and the Gaza-based terror group, a Palestinian newspaper reported Thursday.

TEL AVIV – Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special representative to the Middle East, returned to Israel Sunday night for the second time in a month, a White House official said.

TEL AVIV – Amid Arabic-language reports that Israel and Gaza-based terror group Hamas are heading toward another prisoner swap deal, Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday called on the government not to release “live terrorists” for the bodies of dead soldiers.

Former President Barack Obama lied to the American people about the infamous prisoner swap that was part of the Iran deal in 2016, and released fugitives who were considered major national security threats, according to an investigative report by Politico.

TEL AVIV – Hamas confirmed Wednesday that the terror group received an offer for a prisoner exchange deal from Israel, but rejected it for not meeting its “minimum demands.”

Former Iranian hostage Matthew Trevithick gave some chilling details of his captivity to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, including an interrogator saying of fellow hostage Jason Rezaian: “He’s never leaving, and neither are you.”

Reuters reports Wednesday that part of the deal to secure the release of American prisoners in Iran involved the Administration throwing out a $10 million claim from a Maryland jury against an Iranian-American defendant, even though the defendant himself did not want to be part of the deal.

Precisely 24 hours after Saturday’s hostage for prisoner swap between America and Iran took place, news broke that three Americans were kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq, by Iran-backed militias.

Implementation Day arrived January 16. From now on, the Iran deal is a geopolitical reality–until it expires in about a decade, of course.

Americans are elated that five U.S. citizens held captive in Iran have been freed–but also worry about the steep cost.

Iran State TV station FARS announced Saturday morning that four American dual-nationality prisoners were released from Iranian custody in a “prisoner swap” with the United States.

Following intensive efforts from U.S. President Obama to re-establish relations and the flow of commerce with the communist nation Cuba, nine Democrat California legislators along with academics and state agricultural representatives are making a pilgrimage to the notoriously oppressive nation.

The brother of an American woman who was killed after spending months as a hostage of Islamic State militants says Kayla Mueller’s situation worsened after the government traded five Taliban commanders for a captive U.S. soldier.
