CIA chief held secret meeting with Taliban leader in Kabul

Facing growing pressure over his looming deadline to leave Afghanistan by August 31, US president Joe Biden has send the CIA chief to meet with the Taliban's de facto leader, according to a senior diplomat in the region and another source familiar with the matter. As per reports CIA cief William Burns held a secret meeting with Taliban co-founder and political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar on Monday. The meeting was reported by the Washingto Post. 

The CIA declined to comment on the meeting, citing the agency's policy of never discussing the travels and meetings of its director. But it said it was likely they revolved around any delay in the deadline for the United States to finish evacuations at the airport of the Afghan capital, where thousands of Afghans, terrified by the return of the Islamists, are still massed with the hope of fleeing the country.

The Biden administration is under pressure from some allies to keep US forces in the country beond August 31 deadline in order to assist the evacuation of tens of thousands of citizens of the US and Western countries as well as Afghan allies desperate to escape Taliban rule. However, a Taliban spokesman on Monday warned that there will be "consequences" if the US and UK sought an extension to the August 31 deadline for the US-led troop withdrawal from the war-torn country.