By JON GAMBRELL and RIAZAT BUTT Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Taliban released on Friday a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, likely 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 76, underlined the concerns of the West over the actions of the Taliban since they overthrew the country’s U.S.-backed government in a 2021 lightning offensive.
The Reynolds lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and ran an education and training organization in the country’s central province of Bamiyan, choosing to remain in the country after the Taliban seized power.
“God is good, as they say in Afghanistan,” Barbie Reynolds said after she arrived at Kabul International Airport to fly out of the country.
Qatar mediated the release
Qatar, an energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula that mediated talks between the U.S. and the Taliban before the American withdrawal, helped in releasing the Reynolds. The couple left Afghanistan on Friday.
There was an emotional family reunion on the tarmac in the Qatari capital of Doha. Peter and Barbie appeared upbeat and in good health, smiling as they descended the stairs of the aircraft.
The couple’s daughter, Sarah Entwistle, ran to her parents. She hugged them both, then held her father’s hand to accompany him into the terminal building.
Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state at the Foreign Ministry, thanked the United Kingdom and Afghanistan’s Taliban government “for the fruitful cooperation” in freeing the Reynolds.
The Reynolds’ family 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.
Entwistle said the family was overwhelmed with gratitude and relief to have her parents back after their “incomprehensible detention by the Taliban.”
Speaking in Doha ahead of her parents’ arrival there, she also thanked the Qatari and British governments for their support and efforts to secure the couple’s release.
“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy and international cooperation,” she told journalists.
The Taliban insist the couple violated an unnamed law
A spokesperson at the Taliban government’s Foreign Ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said the couple “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison on Friday after a court hearing, according to a statement he posted on X. He did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.
Balkhi thanked Qatar for its “sincere efforts and mediation” regarding the Reynolds who, he said, were handed over to Richard Lindsay, the U.K.’s special envoy for Afghanistan.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed the couple’s release, saying he knew “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, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, in securing their freedom,” Starmer said in a statement.
In July, U.N. 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.
Release comes as Afghanistan struggles
Earlier this month, the Taliban said they had reached an agreement with U.S. envoys on a prisoner exchange as part of an effort to normalize relations. The meeting came after the Taliban in March released U.S. citizen George Glezmann, who was abducted while traveling through Afghanistan as a tourist.
It remains unclear what, if anything, the Taliban had been promised for the Reynolds’ release. However, Afghanistan’s list of needs is long.
The Western aid money that flowed into it after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion has been severely cut as needs continue to mount, particularly after a magnitude 6 quake on Aug. 31. Its economy remains on shaky ground.
But Western nations remain hesitant to provide money to the Taliban government, citing their restrictions on women and personal freedoms.
Afghanistan also remains a focus of U.S. President Donald Trump. On Thursday, while visiting the United Kingdom, Trump suggested that he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Zakir Jalaly, an official at the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the idea.
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Butt reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.