The United States has formally designated Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention, in a move intended to increase pressure on the Taliban over the continued detention of American citizens.
The announcement was made by the State Department on 9 March, while US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz separately accused Afghanistan’s rulers of engaging in “hostage diplomacy”.
The designation places Afghanistan alongside Iran, which received the same classification from Washington on 27 February. The US administration is using the measure to highlight what it sees as a pattern of detaining Americans in order to extract political leverage or policy concessions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Taliban continued to use “terrorist tactics”, including kidnapping for ransom or in pursuit of policy concessions. He also reiterated that Afghanistan was unsafe for American citizens, saying the Taliban continued to unjustly detain US nationals and other foreign citizens.
Rubio specifically called for the release of Dennis Coyle, an academic researcher detained in Afghanistan since January 2025, and Mahmood Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who disappeared in 2022 while working as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company. The FBI and Habibi’s family believe he was taken by Taliban forces, though the Taliban has denied holding him. Washington is also seeking the return of the remains of Paul Overby, who disappeared near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in 2014.
The designation is designed to increase diplomatic pressure on the Taliban at a time when the movement continues to seek broader international engagement without securing formal recognition from most governments. In practical terms, the decision signals that detainee cases remain central to the US approach to Afghanistan and that progress in the bilateral relationship will be constrained unless those cases are resolved.
Eric Lebson, a former National Security Council official now serving as chief strategy officer at Global Reach, said the designation sent a clear message from the Trump administration that the Taliban held the means to resolve four cases involving detained Americans. He said nothing would move forward in the US-Afghanistan relationship until that happened.
At the United Nations, Waltz widened the criticism beyond the detention issue itself. He told the Security Council that the Taliban’s conduct demonstrated “bad faith” and had made the United States “deeply skeptical” of its willingness to meet international commitments and respect Afghanistan’s obligations.
Waltz also questioned the appeal for $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan while Taliban leaders continue to deny Afghan women their basic rights.
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The US ambassador further linked Washington’s scepticism to the February 2020 Doha agreement signed during Donald Trump’s first presidency. That deal paved the way for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the collapse of the former Afghan government, and the Taliban’s return to power. Waltz said that although the United States continued to participate in the Doha process and related working groups, it now doubted the Taliban’s motives.
Taken together, the designation and Waltz’s remarks indicate that the Trump administration intends to place the detention of Americans at the centre of its Afghanistan policy. The message from Washington is that any improvement in relations will depend in part on whether US citizens held, or believed to be held, in Afghanistan are released.
