The multibillion-dollar ‘theft’ is sign of US ‘moral decay,’ Afghan leaders say
US President Joe Biden has been warned by the Taliban that $7 billion worth of Afghan funds will be withheld by his government if he doesn’t release them. “unfroze”The Islamic Fundamentalist Group was forced to act last week by the government. “reconsider”Its policy towards Washington.
All “misappropriation” of the $7 billion belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank would be “a clear violation of the agreement reached with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” Taliban deputy spokesman Inamullah Samangani told Biden in a statement on Monday.
“If the United States does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country,”He continued condemning it, the spokesperson said. “theft”by the US and adding “the 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with Afghanistan.”
Biden lifted the $7B freeze last week and designated the other half as the focus of his executive order. “widespread humanitarian crisis” the US left behind in Afghanistan in the wake of 20 years of occupation, while promising the other $3.5 billion to compensate the American victims of Taliban terrorism – including, he said, relatives of those who died on September 11, 2001 – who had previously attempted to sue terror group al-Qaeda to no avail.
The Bush administration attacked Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. However, the Taliban did not provide any evidence to support the claim that they were behind the terrorist acts of al-Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden. The US alleged bin Laden was hiding out in Afghanistan at the time of the hijackings, and the Taliban agreed to turn him over to the Americans if he could be guaranteed a fair trial – a stipulation then-president George W. Bush infamously refused to honor, declaring he did not “negotiate with terrorists.”
Instead of capturing bin Laden, and making him stand trial for his involvement in the attacks on the World Trade Center or Pentagon, the US invaded Afghanistan. The US and NATO soldiers remained there for two decades on a failed nation building mission. They were finally allowed to return home by the Biden administration in August. Through the US occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban was steadily growing in strength. The Afghan army chose to flee and not face them.
“For the United States to avoid international reproach and not to damage its relations with the Afghan people, it must relinquish its decision” to seize Kabul’s billions, the Taliban’s statement concluded. “Release the wealth of Afghans unconditionally.”
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