The body, controlled by the Taliban, asks Washington to “reconsider” the decision and withdraw the restrictions
Sep. 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Central Bank of Afghanistan has described as “unacceptable” the decision of the United States to create an external fund to manage Afghan reserves worth 3,500 million dollars (about 3,500 million euros) and has highlighted that these reserves “are owned by the Afghan people”.
“Da Afghanistan Bank’s foreign reserves are owned by the Afghan people and have been used for many years in line with the law to maintain monetary stability, strengthen the financial system and facilitate trade with the world,” it said in a statement.
Thus, he has called for the “complete withdrawal of the restrictions imposed on the country’s foreign reserves.” “Efforts have been made to use the reserves effectively to achieve the aforementioned objectives,” she added in the document, published through his website.
For this reason, the bank – controlled by the Taliban – has reiterated that “any decision on the delivery, use or transfer of these reserves to achieve unrelated objectives is unacceptable”, while calling on the United States to “reconsider” the creation of said fund.
The US State Department announced Wednesday the creation of the fund, stressing that the goal was “to benefit the Afghan people.” In this sense, he pointed out that the US president, Joe Biden, has authorized that the 3,500 million dollars in reserves of the Central Bank “be used for the benefit of the population while keeping them away from the hands of the Taliban and other malicious actors”.
“The Afghanistan Fund will protect, preserve and make concrete disbursements of these 3.5 billion dollars that will help give greater stability to the Afghan economy,” he said, before emphasizing that “the Taliban are not part” of the mechanism. “Robust safeguards have been put in place to prevent funds from being used for illicit activities,” she argued.
Biden ordered in March the unfreezing of these assets to facilitate humanitarian aid to the Central Asian country, after decades of conflict that culminated in the victory of the Taliban movement in August 2021 and the consequent suspension of international aid programs that remained in force with the overthrown government of Afghanistan.
The Taliban have repeatedly demanded that the United States unfreeze these funds and hand them over to the new authorities and have argued that Washington’s refusal is deepening the serious crises in the Central Asian country and limiting its ability to respond to the situation. However, the United States views these requests with suspicion and believes that there is no way to guarantee that the money will not be diverted to other purposes, including support for terrorism.
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