Afghan authorities released an American citizen they had detained on Sunday, a move welcomed by the United States.

The spokesperson for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zia Ahmad Taqal, confirmed in a statement that his country’s authorities freed American citizen Amir Amiri, without providing details about the place or timing of his arrest.

An informed Afghan official, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained that Amiri was arrested in December 2024 and had been imprisoned since then in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.

The U.S. State Department welcomed the release of “Amiri,” calling the move “evidence of President Donald Trump’s administration’s determination to protect Americans arbitrarily detained abroad.”

The department added in a statement that the release of the American citizen represents an “important step,” but stressed that other American citizens remain “wrongfully” detained in Afghanistan.

It affirmed that President Trump “will not stop until all detained Americans return home.”

Earlier, in January, the Afghan government announced its readiness to reach a prisoner exchange agreement with the United States, accusing Washington of not taking “concrete steps” in this regard.

On January 21, Washington released an Afghan prisoner in exchange for freeing two American detainees held in Kabul.

By last March, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the release of another American citizen who had been detained in Afghanistan since 2022.

On September 13, the Afghan Foreign Ministry stated that Kabul and Washington agreed, as part of efforts to normalize relations between the two countries, to continue communication regarding the status of prisoners.