January 1, US officials, Taliban met to negotiate the takeover of Kabul

The Taliban offered the city of Kabul to the US before its collapse, a senior US official confirmed to the Washington Post.

When Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, Kabul began to collapse.

“He not only abandoned his country, but then unraveled the security situation in Kabul,” the senior US official said.

It didn’t take long for law and order to disintegrate, or for armed gangs to roam the streets. In a hastily arranged in-person meeting, senior US military leaders in Doha spoke with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s political leader.

“We have a problem. We have two options to deal with it: You [the United States military] take responsibility for securing Kabul, or you have to allow us to do it,” Baradar said, according to the US official.

President Joe Biden stuck to his resolve to continue the withdrawal of US troops, opting for the Taliban to take over the city.

“We didn’t see a single soldier or police,” Taliban commander Muhammad Nasir Haqqani said. “We couldn’t control our emotions. We were so happy. Most of our fighters were crying. We never thought we would take Kabul so quickly.”

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Surprise, panic and fateful choices: The day America lost its longest war