United States: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Monday that he has declared Afghanistan a "State Sponsor of Unjust Detention," demanding that Taliban authorities release two Americans and commit to ending "hostage diplomacy."
The move comes just over a week after Iran became the first country added to Washington's new "unjust detention" blacklist.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in September that created the blacklist, similar to the United States' designations for terrorism.
"The Taliban continue to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to demand political concessions," Rubio said in a statement.
He said it was "not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continue to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals."
"The Taliban must release Dennis Coyle, Mahmoud Habibi and all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan now and commit to permanently ending the practice of hostage diplomacy," he added.
Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman, previously served as Afghanistan's director of civil aviation.
He was arrested in August 2022 in Kabul along with dozens of other employees of his telecommunications company, according to US authorities.
The State Department has issued a $5 million reward for information leading to Habib's return.
Coyle is an academic from Colorado who worked for two decades in Afghanistan before being arrested in January 2025, according to the James Foley Foundation.
