AP Dubai

The Taliban released on Friday a British couple held in Afghanistan for more than seven months on undisclosed charges, an official said, likely part of a wider effort to get their government recognised 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 organisation 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. 

"God is good, as they say in Afghanistan," Barbie Reynolds said after she arrived at Kabul International Airport to fly out of the country. 

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. 

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. His statement did not say what law the couple were alleged to have broken.

Balkhi thanked Qatar for its "sincere efforts and mediation" regarding the couple who, he said, were handed over to Richard Lindsay, the UK'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.