{"id":122205,"date":"2026-03-10T14:34:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=122205"},"modified":"2026-03-10T14:34:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:34:17","slug":"us-designates-afghanistan-as-state-sponsor-of-wrongful-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/","title":{"rendered":"US designates Afghanistan as &#8216;State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday censured Afghanistan over its detention of American citizens, a move that could lead to a ban on US passport holders traveling to the country. Rubio said in a statement he was designating Afghanistan&#8217;s Taliban government as a &#8220;state sponsor of wrongful detention,&#8221; demanding that Kabul release all US citizens detained in the country, including Mahmood Habibi and Dennis Coyle. &#8220;The Taliban continues to use terrorist tactics, kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions. These despicable tactics need to end,&#8221; he said, adding that he had concluded it was not safe for Americans to travel to the country because of the risk of being unjustly detained. The US is also seeking the return of the remains of Paul Overby, an author who was last seen close to Afghanistan&#8217;s border with Pakistan in 2014, two sources familiar with the situation said. The sources said the US could restrict the use of US passports for travel to Afghanistan if it does not meet the US demands. Such a passport restriction is currently only in place for North Korea. Rubio, on February 27, issued the same determination against Iran, the first country to be designated under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in September. Rubio warned the US could restrict travel to Iran over its detention of US citizens, but has not imposed any restrictions. The US and Israel launched a war against Iran the day after the determination was announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday censured Afghanistan over its detention of American citizens, a move that could lead to a ban on US passport holders traveling to the country. Rubio said in a statement he was designating Afghanistan&#8217;s Taliban government as a &#8220;state sponsor of wrongful detention,&#8221; demanding that Kabul [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US designates Afghanistan as &#039;State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention&#039; - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US designates Afghanistan as &#039;State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention&#039; - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday censured Afghanistan over its detention of American citizens, a move that could lead to a ban on US passport holders traveling to the country. Rubio said in a statement he was designating Afghanistan&#8217;s Taliban government as a &#8220;state sponsor of wrongful detention,&#8221; demanding that Kabul [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-10T09:34:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-10T09:34:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-37-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/\",\"name\":\"US designates Afghanistan as 'State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention' - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-37-2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-10T09:34:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-10T09:34:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-37-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-670x370-37-2.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"US designates Afghanistan as &#8216;State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"US designates Afghanistan as 'State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention' - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/122205\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"US designates Afghanistan as 'State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention' - Nation","og_description":"WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday censured Afghanistan over its detention of American citizens, a move that could lead to a ban on US passport holders traveling to the country. 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