The announcement follows more than a year of fighting over whether the Biden administration should return the $7 billion in Afghan assets that became inaccessible to the country’s leadership after the Taliban rose to power in August 2021. Economists say the freezing of these funds fueled the collapse. Afghanistan’s economy and its hunger crisis, but the Biden administration and other analysts have said the Taliban cannot be trusted to administer such large sums of money. Biden officials also announced in February that half of the $7 billion in funds would be earmarked separately for litigation filed by victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The deteriorating Afghan economy has put pressure on US officials to explore how they could return the funds to the country’s central bank. In June, U.S. officials met with Taliban leaders in Doha, Qatar, to discuss possible compromises that would allow Afghan central bank technocrats to use the funds under close scrutiny to ensure the money does not fall. not in the hands of the Taliban. The Taliban rejected these proposals.
With an elusive deal, economists and aid groups have grown increasingly concerned about Afghanistan’s economy amid an exodus of capital and people. The United Nations estimated in August that about 4 million children suffered from malnutrition and that nearly 95% of the country did not have enough to eat. Some economists say the new fund is insufficient to meet the country’s needs, given that central bank reserves are essential to support a crashing currency. A severe drought and a devastating hurricane have also combined to create what some experts have called the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe.
“This decision can in no way compensate for the damage caused to the Afghan economy and to the millions of people who are starving, in large part due to the United States’ confiscation of Afghan central bank reserves,” he said. said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal think tank.
Yet the United States leaves open the possibility that Afghanistan could eventually recover all of the bank assets. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo sent a letter to the Afghan central bank on Tuesday saying it must meet three conditions – demonstrate political independence from the Taliban, implement anti-money laundering guidelines money and add a “third party monitor” – before the US could consider returning the funds.
“Flaws in economic management contribute to the economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan,” Adeyemo wrote in the letter.
He added, “There is currently no institution in Afghanistan that can guarantee that these funds will only be used for the benefit of the Afghan people.”
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