WASHINGTON – Around five months after completing troops withdrawal from the war-ravaged country, US President Joe Biden has signed an executive freeing up the frozen Afghan funds for humanitarian aid to Kabul and for compensation for 9/11 victims.
Reports in international media said the executive order requires US financial institutions to transfer any Afghan central bank assets that they hold into a newly consolidated account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The US earlier froze the assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank in August last year after the Taliban ousted the Western-backed setup while Washington was under pressure to find a way to use the funds without aiding the interim setup in the landlocked country.
As Biden signed an order freeing up funds, US officials said that a third-party trust fund would be set up to ensure that the aid goes to the distressed Afghan people, and ensuring no benefit goes directly to the Taliban government.
Biden signed the order a month after a US court directed the White House to draft a plan for how it wished to handle the billions in Afghan assets frozen in the US. Congress and UN members also called on the top administration to release the funds to address Afghanistan’s extreme economic crisis.
As some commended Washington’s move, it also raised eyebrows as experts claim that it may exacerbate the country’s many crises. An advocacy group, Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, said it was outraged by the move saying the decision is short-sighted, cruel, and will worsen a catastrophe in progress in Kabul.
We are outraged.
President Biden's decision to set aside half of Afghanistan's frozen reserves to 9/11 families is short-sighted, cruel, and will worsen a catastrophe in progress, affecting millions of Afghans, many of whom are on the verge of starvation.
Our statement: pic.twitter.com/0PAyWNOZmY
— Afghans For A Better Tomorrow (@AfghansTomorrow) February 11, 2022
Around nine million Afghans are on the brink of starvation while more than 23 million people face severe hunger as a major chunk of the entire budget came from international donor funds – which were since halted.
A statement issued addressing September 11 victims said the bereaved families should of course obtain compensation from the Taliban. But we are concerned that the administration’s proposed arrangement is unwise, as it risks precipitating further suffering of the Afghan people.
Earlier in 2010, family members of 9/11 victims sued several groups including Al-Qaeda and the Taliban for their role in facilitating and planning the deadly attack.
Meanwhile, the economy in the neighboring country takes a dip since the Taliban ousted Ghani led government, with the UN warning the country of around 39 million could approach a poverty rate of 97 percent this year.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister frequently also stressed the urgency of providing enhanced international aid to Afghanistan to help it avert a looming humanitarian crisis.
Khan, on different occasions, called upon the international community to provide continued and enhanced assistance and support to Afghanistan including through unfreezing of Afghanistan’s financial assets.
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He even warned that if the world failed to act in a timely manner, Afghanistan could potentially become the “biggest man-made disaster.”
