Washington [US], February 11 (ANI): US President Joe Biden on Friday (local time) moved USD 7 billion of the frozen Afghan assets to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Charlie Savage, Washington-based national security and legal policy correspondent, writing in The New York Times (NYT) said that Biden issued an executive order invoking emergency powers to consolidate and freeze all USD 7 billion of the total assets the Afghan central bank kept in New York and ask a judge for permission to move the other USD 3.5 billion to a trust fund to pay for immediate humanitarian relief efforts and other needs in Afghanistan.
When the Afghan government dissolved in August — with top officials, including its president and the acting governor of its central bank, fleeing the country — it left behind slightly more than USD 7 billion in central bank assets on deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. Because it was no longer clear who — if anyone — had legal authority to gain access to that account, the Fed made the funds unavailable for withdrawal.
The highly unusual set of moves is meant to address a tangled knot of legal, political, foreign policy and humanitarian problems stemming from the attacks and the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, reported NYT.
The Taliban, now in control of Afghanistan, immediately claimed a right to the money. But a group of relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks, one of several sets who had won default judgments against the group in once seemingly quixotic lawsuits years ago, sought to seize it to pay off that debt.
Meanwhile, the economy in Afghanistan has been collapsing, leading to mass starvation that is, in turn, creating an enormous and destabilizing new wave of refugees — and raising a clear need for extensive spending on humanitarian relief. (ANI)
Taliban warns it will ‘reconsider’ US policy amid row over splitting Afghanistan’s frozen funds
The Taliban on Tuesday warned that it will ‘reconsider’ policy towards the US if it does not receive full USD 7 billion frozen assets. US President Joe Biden on Friday decided to split USD 7 billion of the frozen Afghan assets to fund humanitarian relief in Afghanistan and compensate victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
A spokesman for the Taliban issued a statement on Monday saying that the September 11 attacks “had nothing to do with Afghanistan.” The spokesman said 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,” referring to Afghanistan’s official name, reported Voice of America (VOA).
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan at the time of the September 11 attacks and harbored Osama bin Laden, the head of the Al-Qaida terrorist network and mastermind of the US attacks. A US-led invasion of Afghanistan weeks after the attacks overthrew the Taliban after they refused Washington’s demands to surrender Bin Laden.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan last August ended the nearly 20-year war, but the United Nations and other international relief groups say Afghanistan faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, which stems from more than four decades of conflict and natural calamities, reported VOA.
More than half of the country’s poverty-stricken population, or an estimated 24 million Afghans, face an acute food shortage and some one million children under five years of age could die from hunger by the end of this year, according to UN estimates following the US withdrawal from the country. (ANI)
