US moves to thaw $7bn in frozen Afghan funds — Analysis
As part of his plan to divide the money between 9/11 victims and aid, President Joe Biden has issued an executive order consolidating these funds.
The US government has begun freeing up some $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds held in American banks on Friday – without providing Taliban access to the money. As part of its plan to address the problem, the White House has announced that the White House will be releasing $7 billion in Afghan funds frozen by American banks. “widespread humanitarian crisis”Afghanistan. “national emergency.”
The President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring emergency powers from the US to make it possible for financial institutions to consolidate. “block” the assets – which belong to the Da Afghanistan bank, the country’s central bank. This move will allocate $3.5 billion to aid efforts. However, the final amount to be transferred is dependent on ongoing litigation efforts to compensate victims of Taliban terror in America, as well as relatives of the fallen.
The order came as Washington – which has rejected Taliban calls to release the money and has not recognized the militant group as Afghanistan’s legitimate government – faced a court deadline on Friday to declare its position on the victim groups’ lawsuits. Congress has been urging the Biden Administration to utilize the funds in recent weeks to deal with the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan.
After the Taliban’s takeover in August last year, international funding for Afghanistan was cut off. This left billions of dollars as well as assets that belonged to Afghanistan stranded abroad. According to The New York Times, $7 billion has been reported to have been held in US banks. Biden’s order will further hobble Afghanistan’s already stricken central bank, the paper reported.
Access to 50% of these assets will be made easier by the US government. “the benefit of the Afghan people and for Afghanistan’s future,”A White House factsheet on Friday said that the process could take place, but did not go into details. The White House also stated that American Taliban victims should be able to get assistance. “full opportunity to have their claims heard in court,”With “more than $3.5 billion in DAB assets”Remaining in the US to provide compensation for plaintiffs.
The New York Times stated that this was “highly unusual”To the US “commandeer” a foreign country’s assets, with the paper reporting that the amount marked for aid efforts could eventually be placed in a trust fund that would finance assistance while bypassing the Taliban. This will likely take several months to set up, according to unnamed sources.
LEARN MORE
NATO can’t let Afghan children starve just because it lost
The Taliban has criticised the decision “theft” with Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the group’s political office, describingYou can find it here “the lowest level of human and moral depravity.”As Afghanistan’s economy is still in crisis, the group previously called for international assistance to help stop a humanitarian catastrophe. Afghanistan holds more than $9 billion of reserves. The remainder is in Germany, United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
Last month, the UN called for nearly $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan, warning that nearly 90% of the country’s 38 million people had fallen below the poverty line and that more than one million children were at risk of starvation.
[ad_2]