A senior US official has warned that Washington will not tolerate what he described as the Taliban’s use of “hostage diplomacy,” calling for the release of Americans still held in Afghanistan.
Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Trump and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, made the remarks in a post on X marking one year since the release of American citizen George Glezmann from Taliban custody.
“What started as a vacation … turned into an 836-day nightmare,” Gorka said, saying that it happened “because of the Taliban’s inhuman policy of taking innocent Americans and using them as political pawns.”
Glezmann, a Delta Air Lines mechanic, was freed last year following efforts by President Trump.
Gorka said the United States had recently taken further steps to address detentions, noting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan as a “State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention.”
“We will not tolerate the evil practice of hostage diplomacy,” Gorka said, adding that US authorities are seeking the return of several Americans he identified as still detained, including Dennis Coyle, Mahmood Habibi, Paul Overby and Polynesus Jackson.
“Kabul, you have been warned,” he added.
The US State Department has also warned against travel to Afghanistan, citing ongoing detentions.
“It is not safe for Americans to travel to Afghanistan because the Taliban continues to unjustly detain our fellow Americans and other foreign nationals,” the department said in a statement.
The ministry has said that “the Taliban need to release Dennis Coyle, Mahmoud Habibi, and all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan now and commit to cease the practice of hostage diplomacy forever.”
Taliban have previously denied holding foreign nationals for political purposes, though cases involving detained Americans remain a point of tension with Washington.
