Taliban says detained British couple receiving medical care
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 80-years-old and 75-years-old, had lived in Afghanistan for 18 years when they were arrested in February along with Chinese-American friend Faye Hall, who has since been released, and an Afghan translator.
'All their human rights are being respected,' Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a news conference in the capital Kabul.
'They are being provided with medical care. They are in occasional contact with their families.'
Muttaqi said 'efforts are underway to secure their release, but the process is not complete,' echoing similar comments by the government in April.
Independent United Nations experts warned on Monday of the 'rapid deterioration' of their physical and mental health, stating that they 'risk irreparable harm or even death.'
The couple, against whom no charges have been brought, were held 'in a high-security facility for several months, then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred last week' to the intelligence services in Kabul, according to the UN.
The experts said Peter Reynolds requires heart medication following a stroke in 2023.
Since his detention, he has suffered two eye infections and intermittent tremors in his head and left arm.
His wife, who is anemic, is 'weak and fragile' and has reported numbness in her feet, the experts said.
The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, had been running education programs in Afghanistan and held Afghan passports.
Taliban officials have refused to detail the reasons for their arrest but a source familiar with the case told AFP in April that the couple were in possession of several non-Islamic books.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
14 minutes ago
- Arab News
North Korea says South Korea's overtures ‘great miscalculation'
SEOUL: North Korea has no interest in any policy or proposals for reconciliation from South Korea, the powerful sister of its leader Kim Jong Un said on Monday in the first response to South Korean liberal President Lee Jae Myung's peace overtures. Kim Yo Jong, who is a senior North Korean ruling party official and is believed to speak for the country's leader, said Lee's pledge of commitment to South Korea-US security alliance shows he is no different from his hostile predecessor. 'If South Korea expects to reverse all the consequences of (its actions) with a few sentimental words, there could be no greater miscalculation than that,' Kim said in comments carried by official KCNA news agency. Lee, who took office on June 4 after winning a snap election called after the removal of hard-line conservative Yoon Suk Yeol over a failed attempt at martial law, has vowed to improve ties with Pyongyang that had reached the worst level in years. As gestures aimed at easing tensions, Lee suspended loudspeaker broadcasts blasting anti-North propaganda across the border and banned the flying of leaflets by activists that had angered Pyongyang. Kim, the North Korean official, said those moves are merely a reversal of ill-intentioned activities by South Korea that should never have been initiated in the first place. 'In other words, it's not even something worth our assessment,' she said. 'We again make clear the official position that whatever policy is established in Seoul or proposal is made, we are not interested, and we will not be sitting down with South Korea and there is nothing to discuss.' There has been cautious optimism in the South that the North may respond positively and may even show willingness to re-engage in dialogue, particularly after Pyongyang also shut off its loudspeakers, a move Lee said was quicker than expected. Still, Lee, whose government is in the midst of tough negotiations with Washington to avert punishing tariffs that President Donald Trump has threatened against a string of major trading partners, has said US alliance is the pillar of South Korea's diplomacy. 'Through efforts in the areas of politics, economic security and culture, we will strengthen the South Korea-US alliance that was sealed in blood,' Lee said in remarks commemorating the anniversary of the Korean War armistice on Sunday. North Korea also marked the anniversary which it calls victory day with events including a parade in Pyongyang, although state media reports indicated it was at a relatively lesser scale compared to some previous years. The two Koreas, the United States and China, which are the main belligerents in the 1950-53 Korean War, have not signed a peace treaty.
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Powerful sister of north korean leader kim rejects south korea's appeasement overture
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rebuffed an appeasement overture by South Korea's new liberal government, saying Monday that North Korea has no interests in talks with South Korea, no matter what proposal its rival offers. Kim Yo-jong's comments suggest, again, that North Korea, now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia, has no intentions of returning to diplomacy with South Korea and the US anytime soon. But experts said North Korea could change its course if it thinks it cannot maintain the same booming ties with Russia when the Russia-Ukraine war nears an end. 'We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it, and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed with South Korea,' Kim Yo-jong said in a statement carried by state media. It's North Korea's first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, which took office in early June. In an effort to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea, Lee's government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border, and repatriated North Koreans who drifted south in wooden boats months earlier. Kim Yo-jong called such steps 'sincere efforts' by Lee's government to develop ties. But she said the Lee government won't be much different from its predecessors, citing what it calls their 'blind trust' to the alliance with the US and attempt to 'stand in confrontation' with North Korea. She mentioned August's annual South Korea-US military drills in August, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal. North Korea has been shunning talks with South Korea and the US since leader Kim Jong-un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals. North Korea now prioritizes cooperation with Russia by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine, likely in return for economic and military assistance. South Korea, the US, and others say Russia may give North Korea sensitive technologies that can enhance its nuclear and missile programs. Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong-un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn't publicly responded to Trump's overture. In early 2024, Kim Jong-un ordered the rewriting of the constitution to remove the long-running state goal of a peaceful Korean unification and cement South Korea as an invariable principal enemy. That caught many foreign experts by surprise because it was seen as eliminating the idea of shared statehood between the war-divided Koreas and breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of peacefully achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Many experts say Kim likely aims to guard against South Korean cultural influence and bolster his family's dynastic rule. Others say Kim wants legal room to use his nuclear weapons against South Korea by making it a foreign enemy state, not a partner for potential unification, which shares a sense of national homogeneity.
Arab News
7 hours ago
- Arab News
Chinese firm eyes investment in Pakistan's ICT, new energy sectors — ministry
ISLAMABAD: GuoDong Group, a leading Chinese communications firm, has expressed 'strong interest' in investment in Pakistan's information and communication technology (ICT) and new energy sectors, the Pakistani IT ministry said on Sunday. The statement came after a meeting between Pakistan's IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja and a three-member GuoDong Group delegation, led by its founder and chairman Lu Jie in Shanghai. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Global Artificial Intelligence Conference, at which both sides discussed investment opportunities in Pakistan, according to the Pakistani IT ministry. 'The delegation expressed strong interest in investing in Pakistan's ICT sector, with a focus on telecommunication towers, data centers, and cloud computing infrastructure,' the Pakistani ministry said in a statement. 'Mr. Lu Jie also conveyed interest in expanding to new energy domains, including EV charging stations, smart city solutions, and advanced material manufacturing within Pakistan.' The development comes as Pakistan, slowly recovering from a macroeconomic crisis under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal, has been looking to boost foreign investment for sustainable growth. In May, the Pakistani government allocated 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the first phase of a national initiative to power cryptocurrency mining and Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers. The South Asian country is also looking to build critical electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure as it targets 30 percent of all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030 under its ambitious New Electric Vehicle Policy (NEVP) 2025–2030. Welcoming the proposals, Khawaja invited the GuoDong Group officials to visit Pakistan for more detailed discussions with relevant stakeholders. 'She assured the delegation of the Government's full support and facilitation to help realize these investment initiatives,' the IT ministry said.
