The U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, officials in Kabul said Sunday.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the U.S. government had revoked the bounties placed on Haqqani, Abdul Aziz Haqqani, and Yahya Haqqani.
“These three individuals are two brothers and one paternal cousin,” Qani told The Associated Press.
The Haqqani network grew into one of the deadliest arms of the Taliban after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The group employed roadside bombs, suicide bombings and other attacks, including on the Indian and U.S. embassies, the Afghan presidency, and other major targets. They also have been linked to extortion, kidnapping and other criminal activity.
A Foreign Ministry official, Zakir Jalaly, said the Taliban’s release of U.S. prisoner George Glezmann on Friday and the removal of bounties showed both sides were “moving beyond the effects of the wartime phase and taking constructive steps to pave the way for progress” in bilateral relations.
“The recent developments in Afghanistan-U.S. relations are a good example of the pragmatic and realistic engagement between the two governments,” said Jalaly.
Another official, Shafi Azam, hailed the development as the beginning of normalization, also citing the Taliban’s announcement they were in control of Afghanistan’s embassy in Norway.
Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, China has been the most prominent country to accept one of their diplomats. Other countries have accepted de facto Taliban representatives, like Qatar, which has been a key mediator between the U.S. and the Taliban. U.S. envoys have also met the Taliban.
The Taliban rule, especially bans affecting women and girls, has triggered widespread condemnation and deepened their international isolation.
Haqqani has previously spoken out against the Taliban’s decision-making process, authoritarianism and alienation of the Afghan population.
He has been under U.N. sanctions since 2007, because of his involvement with the network founded by his father, Jalaluddin.
But the global body has allowed him to travel in the past 12 months, including to the United Arab Emirates to meet the country’s leadership and to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. Those were his first trips abroad since the Taliban takeover.
Ibraheem Bahiss, a senior analyst with International Crisis Group’s Asia program, said the removal of the bounties was a win for Taliban officials wanting to do business with the international community. The U.S. was showing it could reward those who made compromises within their own remit, even if these compromises didn’t translate to national policy, he said.
The international community had made demands of the Taliban, specifically lifting restrictions on women and girls, but offered nothing in return, said Bahiss. Scrapping bounties was a sign that small diplomatic overtures were possible.
While recognition as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan might not immediately be on the horizon, the Taliban viewed normalization as enough progress given their existing diplomatic inroads in the region, according to Bahiss.
“For the Taliban, the removal of sanctions is more important than (official) recognition. Sanctions bite. They inhibit your ability to do business, to travel. That’s why they would celebrate this as a victory. The transactional nature of this diplomacy suits both the Taliban and Trump.”
His partial rehabilitation on the international stage is in contrast to the status of the reclusive Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who could face arrest by the International Criminal Court for his persecution of women.
FILE - Acting interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, speaks during the funeral prayers of Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, during his funeral procession in eastern Paktia province, Afghanistan, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir, File)
Markets appear to be settling a day after a broad rally was fueled by hopes the Trump administration may take a more targeted approach to tariffs.
Futures for the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all rose less than 0.1% before Tuesday's opening bell.
KB Homes slid 8.6% after it fell significantly short of Wall Street's first quarter sales and profit forecasts. Already mired in a slump, homebuilders are now faced with potentially rising costs due to tariffs, which they will have to pass on to buyers. KB's results and grim forecast dragged a host of other homebuilders' shares down with it, including Toll Brothers, LGI and Lennar.
Tesla shares ticked up 1.3% despite more grim sales figures from Europe.
European sales of Tesla electric cars were almost cut in half during the first two months of the year compared with a year earlier, even as the overall market for battery-powered cars grew, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
In addition to an aging model line, sales declines are also being blamed in part on CEO Elon Elon Musk’s endorsement of Germany’s far-right party in last month’s national election, his embrace of fringe political movements, and a gesture during a Trump event in January that many saw as a Nazi salute. Tesla is also facing increasing competition from Chinese carmakers such as BYD.
Wall Street has several economic updates this week. The Conference Board releases its consumer confidence survey for March on Tuesday. On Friday, the U.S. government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index for February, a measure of inflation closely watched by the Federal Reserve.
Stocks have been roiled for weeks by concerns that a trade war could hinder economic growth and increase inflationary pressures.
A new round of tariffs is scheduled to go into effect on April 2, but President Donald Trump has been unclear on his plans, saying Monday that even though he wants to charge “reciprocal” rates — import taxes to match the rates charged by other countries -- that “we might be even nicer than that.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump said Venezuela has been “very hostile” to the U.S. and any county purchasing its oil will pay a 25% tariff on all exports to the U.S. starting April 2.
“U.S. tariffs remain a critical headwind for the region to navigate. Any slowdown in trade could weigh on Asia’s export-driven economies, while shifting supply chains may complicate investment flows,” Junrong Yeap of IG said in a commentary.
That would likely more than double the already high tariffs facing China, which in 2023 bought 68% of the oil exported by Venezuela, according to a 2024 analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. also imports oil from Venezuela.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% to 37,780.54, while the Kospi in South Korea lost 0.6% to 2,615.81.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 2.4% to 23,344.25 as heavy selling of tech-related shares pulled the benchmark lower.
Cell phone maker Xiaomi's Hong Kong-traded shares dropped 6.3% and delivery app company Meituan lost 4.4%. E-commerce giant Alibaba was down 3.8%.
The Shanghai Composite index was unchanged at 3,369.98.
Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.8% and the SET in Thailand lost 0.5%.
In Europe at midday, Germany’s DAX added 1.1%, while the CAC 40 in Paris was up 1.3%. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.7%.
Financial information is displayed on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Financial information is displayed on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
The display board with the Dax curve in the trading hall of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Germany, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Arne Dedert/dpa/dpa via AP)
Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A currency trader talks on the phone near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
