DUBAI: The Taliban released on Friday a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, an official said, part of a wider effort to get their government recognized internationally years after taking power.
The case of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, aged 80 and 75, underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s US-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive.
The Reynolds had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and run an education and training organization in the country’s central province of Bamiyan, choosing to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power.
Qatar, an energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula that mediated talks between the US and the Taliban before the American withdrawal, helped in releasing the Reynolds. The couple left Afghanistan on Friday, a diplomat said. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations in the case.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer Friday hailed the “vital role” played by Qatar in winning the release of a British couple held by Taliban authorities in Afghanistan.
He welcomed the release of Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife, Barbie, 76, who had been arrested in February, saying: “This long-awaited news will come as a huge relief to them and their family.”
“I want to pay tribute to the vital role played by Qatar,” including the emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, “in securing their freedom,” Starmer added in a statement.
The Reynolds’ family members in the United Kingdom repeatedly called for the couple’s release, saying they were being mistreated and held on undisclosed charges. While the Taliban rejected the abuse allegations, they have never explained what prompted their detention.
There was no immediate comment from the Taliban government or the UK Foreign Office about the couple’s release.
In July, United Nations human rights experts warned the couple’s physical and mental health was deteriorating rapidly and that they were at risk of irreparable harm or even death.
Earlier this month, the Taliban said they had reached an agreement with US envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalize relations. The meeting came after the Taliban in March released US citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
Afghanistan remains a focus of US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, while visiting the UK, Trump suggested that he is working to reestablish a US presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Zakir Jalaly, an official at the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the idea.
