US designates Afghanistan as sponsor of wrongful detention

Body

The U.S. State Department on Monday designated Afghanistan as a sponsor of wrongful detention, accusing the Taliban of detaining Americans and other foreigners to extract policy concessions—an approach the U.S. described as “hostage diplomacy.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Taliban’s actions make it unsafe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan and he urged the group to release Americans the U.S. says are in its custody.

Rubio’s announcement came as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told the U.N. Security Council that the Taliban’s handling of detainees shows “bad faith” and has left the United States “deeply skeptical” of the group’s willingness to meet international commitments and respect Afghanistan’s obligations.

In his statement, Rubio said the Taliban “continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions,” and he described the tactics as “despicable.” He said these practices must end and called on the Taliban to release Americans believed to be in its custody, including Dennis Coyle, an academic researcher detained in Afghanistan since January 2025, and Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company and vanished in 2022.

Rubio said “It is not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan” and tied that assessment to what he described as the Taliban’s “unjustly detain[ing]” Americans and other foreign nationals. The announcement also relied on the U.S. position that the Taliban has used detentions as leverage in dealings with Washington.

Habibi’s family and the FBI have said they believe he was taken by Taliban forces, but the Taliban has denied holding him, according to the report. The U.S. designation did not provide new access details on where the detainees are being held.

Waltz, who spoke separately at the Security Council meeting, accused the Taliban of engaging in “hostage diplomacy,” pointing to “innocent Americans being detained.” He said the Taliban’s actions “demonstrate bad faith” and have made the United States “deeply skeptical of their willingness to meet their international commitments or respect Afghanistan’s international obligations.”

Waltz also questioned the scale of humanitarian support the Taliban-led government is seeking, citing $1 billion in humanitarian aid. He connected that skepticism to what he characterized as the Taliban leadership’s denial of Afghan women’s basic rights and to what he said were broader concerns about the group’s motives.

In his remarks, Waltz questioned the Taliban’s sincerity in relation to the Doha peace deal signed with the United States in February 2020, which he said led to the U.S. troop withdrawal and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. He said the concerns also apply while the United States continues to participate in the Doha process and its working groups, but he said the U.S. doubts the Taliban’s motives and can’t “build confidence” with a group that continues to detain Americans and that he said ignores Afghanistan’s basic needs.

The U.S. designations are part of a coordinated effort to increase pressure, with the State Department stating that Afghanistan’s designation joins Iran—another country singled out by the U.S. in the prior two weeks. Iran received an identical designation on Feb. 27, one day before U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran that later evolved into a broader war across the Middle East.