US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has intensified tensions with the Taliban, threatening to grant important bonuses to their leaders, against a background of allegations that more American citizens are detained in Afghanistan than what had been previously announced.
Rubio’s remarks are used shortly after the Taliban government and the United States have led a highly publicized prisoner exchange, a final act under the administration of former president Joe Biden.
As part of this agreement, the Taliban released Ryan Corbett, an American well known in August 2022, and William McKenty, another American on which few things have been disclosed. In exchange, the United States has released Khan Mohammed, found guilty of heroin and conspiracy trafficking to kill American soldiers, who was serving a perpetuity sentence in a Californian prison.
On social networks, Marco Rubio wrote: “The simple fact of hearing that the Taliban have more American hostages than we have reported. If this is true, we will immediately have to place a very large bonus on their main leaders, perhaps even larger than that which we have granted to Bin Laden. ”
This sharp reference recalls the $ 25 million bonus placed on Osama bin Laden after the September 11 attacks, authorized by the Congress to increase up to $ 50 million. However, no one seems to have claimed this bonus before Bin Laden’s death during an American raid in Pakistan in 2011.
The threat of Rubio marks a radical rhetorical change in the approach of the Biden era, with echoes of the conflict style of former president Donald Trump. The Trump administration broke taboos by negotiating directly with the Taliban and negotiating a controversial agreement for the withdrawal of American troops, thus ending the longest American war.
Biden joined the agreement, which allowed the Taliban to quickly regain control of Afghanistan in August 2021. The chaotic withdrawal of the United States aroused strong criticism, especially after a murderous suicide attack at the ‘Kabul airport killed 13 American soldiers and dozens of Afghans.
Since then, American commitments to the Taliban has been minimal. Some members of Trump’s Republican Party have even criticized limited humanitarian aid authorized by the Biden administration, which insisted that the funds were intended to meet urgent needs and not to go through the Taliban.
Rubio went further by freeing almost all American help in the world. His position underlines a harder line with regard to the Taliban, who remain unknown at the international level because of their hard policies, in particular their restrictions on women and girls in the context of an ultra-conservative interpretation of the ‘Islam.
Adding to increasing pressure, the International Criminal Court recently announced that it was asking arrest terms against high Taliban leaders for women’s persecution.
The evolution of the situation raises questions on American policy with regard to the Americans detained and on its broader approach to Afghanistan under the mandate of Rubio as Secretary of State.
