Don Brown, the U.S. chargé d’affaires for Afghanistan, has said that a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump is designed to protect American citizens from wrongful detention abroad and warned of serious consequences for governments or groups that detain U.S. nationals as leverage.
“Anyone who tries to use an American citizen as a bargaining tool will face severe consequences,” Brown said on X.
The order authorizes the State Department to designate countries as “state sponsors of wrongful detention” and impose sanctions or other punitive measures. These could include economic penalties, visa restrictions, reductions in foreign aid and limits on U.S. passport holders traveling to those countries.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the move “unprecedented,” saying the designation is modeled on the long-standing U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. “No country should want to see its name on this list,” he said.
The White House said the order also applies to nonstate actors controlling significant territory, even if they are not internationally recognized as governments.
The administration has not specified when the new measures will be implemented.
