US President Directs Splitting Afghanistan's Frozen Funds With 9/11 Victims, Country Calls It An 'Injustice'

Ever since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, problems just keep on piling up for the nation¡¯s citizens. From economic to humanitarian crisis, the country is struggling for survival.

Not only has the country¡¯s currency gone on to plummet, but even millions of people are also either already gripped with starvation or on the brink of it. But a recent decision by the USA has been on the receiving end of heavy criticism, with the Afghanistan Central Bank calling it an injustice.

AP

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What The USA Has Done

Last week on Friday (11th February 2022), as per an executive order signed by President Joe Biden, the process of releasing $7 billion in Afghan Central Bank funds held in the Federal Reserve, began.

Earlier, the US had frozen those assets in August 2021 when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan as American and NATO forces withdrew.

Although Biden¡¯s plan proposes to direct $3.5 billion, i.e half of that frozen fund, into a trust fund for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, but the remaining $3.5 billion is directed to be kept aside for families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.

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The Afghanistan Central Bank¡¯s Response

AP

Consequently, the Central Bank Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) has criticized this decision, saying its assets had been invested in the United States in line with international practices, and belonged to the people of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan¡¯s Central Bank on Saturday criticized Washington's plan to use half the bank`s $7 billion in frozen assets on U.S. soil for humanitarian aid and set aside the rest to possibly satisfy lawsuits over the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Given that this entire crisis was triggered by the poorly planned U.S. withdrawal after two decades of war, many in Afghanistan and its diaspora pointed out that this decision by US appears to be a backward attempt to punish Afghanistan for its role in the 2001 attacks on the U.S.

If that is the reason, then the aim of this move seems to be off-target because out of the origins of the 9/11 hijackers, 15 came from Saudi Arabia, two from the UAE and one each from Lebanon and Egypt. So, not even one was Afghan.

This move by the US last Friday has thus been on the receiving end of heavy criticism, especially amidst the current crisis in Afghanistan, with more than half of the country¡¯s nearly 40 million people facing acute hunger and a million children at risk of dying amid a harsh winter.

AFP

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As per the bank¡¯s statement, "DAB considers the latest decision of USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes, injustice to the people of Afghanistan. DAB will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan is paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan."

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Risk Of Upto 900,000 Job Losses By Mid 2022

In January 2022, the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) had stated that more than half a million people had lost or been pushed out of their jobs in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over. And by the middle of this year 2022, it¡¯s expected that job losses will increase to nearly 700,000 - with direct predictions topping 900,000 - as a result of the crisis in Afghanistan and ¡°restrictions on women¡¯s participation in the workplace¡±.

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