US lawmakers grilled President Joe Biden's Afghanistan peace envoy on Tuesday about how women will be protected if the hard-line Islamist Taliban takes control after US troops withdraw, and threatened to withhold funding if rights gains are reversed.

"I don’t believe under any circumstances that the United States Senate will support assistance for Afghanistan, especially under the World Bank’s program which provides budget support, if the Taliban takes a governing role that ends civil society advances and rolls back women’s rights," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairperson Bob Menendez.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation...