Frozen assets
Kabul
The Taliban have pleaded with the United States and the West to show “mercy and compassion” by releasing $10 billion in funds frozen when the movement seized Afghanistan.
In a rare interview with Associated Press, the country’s interim Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that the funds would help millions of the country’s citizens that are in desperate need.
He said that the Taliban government wants good relations with all countries and has no issue with the United States. “Sanctions against Afghanistan would … not have any benefit,” Muttaqi said on Sunday, speaking in his native Pashto during the interview.
“Making Afghanistan unstable or having a weak Afghan government is not in the interest of anyone,” said Muttaqi, whose aides include employees of the previous government as well as those recruited from the ranks of the Taliban.
He also said that Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers are committed in principle to education and jobs for girls and women, a marked departure from their previous time in power which saw a history of oppression and human rights abuses.
Muttaqi acknowledged the world’s outrage at the Taliban-imposed limitations on girls’ education and on women in the workforce.
In many parts of Afghanistan, female high school students between the grades of seven and 12 have not been permitted to go to school since the Taliban took over, and many female civil servants have been told to stay home.
Taliban officials have said they need time to create gender-segregated arrangements in schools and workplaces that meet their interpretation of Islam.
