In the very last hours of President Joe Biden’s time in office, a prisoner exchange years in the making was finally struck: the Taliban agreed to swap two Americans being held in Afghanistan for one Taliban member serving a life sentence in a US prison.

President Biden spoke by phone Sunday with the families of three Americans held by the Taliban, Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi.

Families of American hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan have asked Joe Biden “to do the right thing” and bring the men home before he leaves office, after months of lobbying the outgoing president to broker a deal with the hardline Islamist regime.