The United States has condemned Afghanistan for detaining American citizens and is considering imposing travel restrictions on US passport holders wishing to visit the country.
In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he had designated the Taliban government as a "state sponsor of arbitrary detention." He demanded the immediate release of all American citizens detained in Afghanistan, including Mahmood Habibi and Dennis Coyle.
Marco Rubio accused the Taliban of using "terrorist tactics," claiming that some detentions were used to obtain ransoms or political concessions. He argued that these practices make travel to Afghanistan particularly dangerous for American citizens.
US authorities are also asking the Taliban to allow the repatriation of the remains of Paul Overby, an American writer last seen in 2014 near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to sources close to the matter, Washington could go so far as to restrict the use of American passports for travel to Afghanistan if Kabul does not meet US requirements. Such a measure is currently only applied to one other country: North Korea.
This stance comes amid very tense relations between the United States and the Taliban regime, which regained power in Afghanistan in 2021 after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces.
