The US State Department on Monday designated Afghanistan as a ‘State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention’, with Secretary of State Macro Rubio accusing the Taliban of deploying “despicable tactics”.
“The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions. These despicable tactics need to end,” Rubio said in a statement, adding “It is not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals.”
The Secretary of State also called on the Taliban to release two Americans believed to be in its custody.
Rubio in particular called for the release of Dennis Coyle, an academic researcher detained in the country since January 2025, and Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based company and vanished in 2022.
The move comes just a week after Iran became the first country to get added to Washington’s ‘wrongful detention’ list, which was created by President Donald Trump in September.
Iran was put on the list for its “abhorrent” actions, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying, “For decades the Iranian regime has cruelly detained innocent Americans and citizens of other nations to use as political leverage. Iran must end this abhorrent practice and immediately free all unjustly detained Americans.”
Taliban actions demonstrate ‘bad faith’
Parallelly, US Ambassador to the UN Mark Waltz on Monday accused the Taliban of engaging in “hostage diplomacy”, pointing to the detention of Americans.
As per a report by APWaltz questioned the USD 1 billion in humanitarian aid being sought for Afghanistan, and told a UN Security Council Meeting that the Taliban’s actions “demonstrate bad faith” and have made the US “deeply skeptical of their willingness to meet their international commitments or respect Afghanistan’s international obligations”.
The US ambassador to the UN also said the concern about Kabul failing to live up to commitments applied to the Doha peace deal that Trump signed with Taliban in February 2020, prompting the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the country.
(With inputs from agencies)
