KABUL
\nTaliban authorities accused the United States on Thursday of having \u201cusurped\u201d Afghan assets, after Washington revealed plans to set up an external fund to manage $3.5 billion of its seized national reserves.
\nWhen the Taliban stormed back to power in August last year, the US froze $7 billion in central bank assets, exacerbating a poverty crisis caused by the collapse of the old regime and suspension of foreign aid.
\nEarlier this year US President Joe Biden revealed a plan to split the cash, with half for aid to Afghanistan and half going to victims of the 9\/11 terror attacks that prompted the US-led invasion. Since then Kabul\u2019s new leaders have been courting Washington to unlock the aid cash as Afghanistan has been lashed by a winter food crisis, economic free-fall and devastating earthquake.
\nBut on Wednesday the US said the $3.5 billion would be stored in a professionally run fund, as it did not trust the Taliban leadership with the country\u2019s money. \u201cThe assets of the people of Afghanistan have been usurped by the United States,\u201d government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
\n\u201cWe consider it an invasion on the property of Afghans,\u201d he added. \u201cThe United States is not the owner of these assets.\u201d He demanded the funds are released \u201cwithout any conditions\u201d. The new Afghan Fund, based in Geneva, will not provide humanitarian assistance but will be put in charge of core central bank functions such as paying Afghanistan\u2019s international arrears and for its electricity imports — and potentially for necessities such as printing currency.
\nSince the end of the 20-year military intervention, the US and other nations have been grappling with how to funnel aid to Afghanistan without going through the Taliban.
\n\u201cThere is currently no institution in Afghanistan that can guarantee that these funds would be used only for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan,\u201d US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote in a letter to the country\u2019s central Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) on Wednesday.
\n\u201cUntil these conditions are met, sending assets to DAB would place them at unacceptable risk and jeopardize them as a source of support for the Afghan people,\u201d said the letter obtained by AFP.
\nDAB also criticised the plan to deposit its reserves in Switzerland. It said it would be \u201cunacceptable\u201d for the institution to use them for anything other than legitimate economic activity, such as stabilising the money market and facilitating trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL Taliban authorities accused the United States on Thursday of having \u201cusurped\u201d Afghan assets, after Washington revealed plans to set up an external fund to manage $3.5 billion of its seized national reserves. When the Taliban stormed back to power in August last year, the US froze $7 billion in central bank assets, exacerbating a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-283893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n