The United States has designated Afghanistan under Taliban rule as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention,” the State Department announced on March 9, 2026, citing the regime’s ongoing practice of hostage diplomacy to extract concessions or ransoms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the designation, which follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September 2025 establishing a blacklist similar to those used for state sponsors of terrorism.

The move comes just over a week after Iran became the first country added to the new wrongful detention list. Rubio accused the Taliban of employing terrorist tactics by unjustly detaining Americans and other foreign nationals to gain leverage, declaring that it remains unsafe for U.S. citizens to travel to Afghanistan due to the continued risk of arbitrary detention.

In his statement, Rubio specifically demanded the immediate release of two detained Americans—Dennis Coyle and Mahmoud Habibi—along with all others held unjustly, and called on the Taliban to permanently end its hostage diplomacy. Coyle, an academic from Colorado who had worked in Afghanistan for two decades, was detained in January 2025, according to reports from the James Foley Foundation, which tracks wrongful detentions globally.

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Habibi, a dual Afghan-American businessman and former director of civil aviation for Afghanistan, was arrested in August 2022 in Kabul along with dozens of employees from his telecommunications company. The U.S. State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his safe return, underscoring the priority placed on resolving his case.

The designation carries symbolic and diplomatic weight, signaling heightened U.S. condemnation of the Taliban’s practices since the group regained control of Afghanistan in 2021. It aligns with broader U.S. efforts to pressure regimes that use detention as a tool of state policy, while highlighting the lack of formal diplomatic relations and limited leverage over the Taliban government.

The announcement reflects ongoing concerns about the safety of Americans abroad and the Taliban’s failure to adhere to international norms on arbitrary detention. No immediate Taliban response was reported, but the designation is likely to further complicate any future engagement or humanitarian negotiations involving detained individuals. As the U.S. continues to monitor wrongful detention cases worldwide, this step reinforces the administration’s commitment to using targeted designations to address hostage diplomacy.

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