WASHINTON, DC — The
US said Wednesday it was
setting up an outside, professionally-run fund to manage $3.5 billion in
Afghanistan’s reserves, concluding it cannot trust the Taliban leadership with
the country’s money.
اضافة اعلان
The new Afghan Fund, based in Geneva, will be put in
charge of core central bank functions such as paying Afghanistan’s
international arrears and for its electricity imports and potentially for
future necessities such as printing currency.
The decision comes after talks between the Taliban
and the US failed to convince
President Joe Biden’s administration that it
should hand over assets frozen when the Islamist militants returned to power 13
months ago, despite the dire humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.
In a letter to Afghanistan’s central bank, US Deputy
Treasury Secretary
Wally Adeyemo voiced regret that it had not addressed US
concerns including demonstrating independence from the Taliban, enforcing
pre-Taliban commitments against counter-terrorism funding and money laundering,
and bringing in a reputable outside monitor.
“There is currently no institution in Afghanistan
that can guarantee that these funds would be used only for the benefit of the
people of Afghanistan, including DAB,” he wrote, using the acronym of the
central Da Afghanistan Bank.
“Until 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,” he wrote in a letter obtained by AFP.
The Afghan Fund will be incorporated in Switzerland
with a board of two appointed Afghan economists unaffiliated with the Taliban
and representatives of both the US and Swiss governments.
It will maintain an account with the Bank for
International Settlements, which is owned by the world’s central banks, and
also pay for key functions such as Afghanistan’s access to the global SWIFT
banking payment system.
The US expects the bulk of the reserves to be
preserved and “responsibly managed” until the situation changes, a senior
official said.
Dim US view of Taliban
The US froze $7 billion in
Afghan assets maintained in New York in August 2021 when the two-decade-old
Western-backed government swiftly collapsed with Biden’s pullout of US troops.
Biden in February said that half of the assets would
be made available to victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which prompted
the US invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban, who had given
sanctuary to Al-Qaeda.
The decision outraged the Taliban but the militants
later opened talks with the US on a way forward, with momentum building after
Afghanistan suffered a devastating earthquake in June.
Then in August, the US killed Al-Qaeda’s leader
Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a strike on his home in Kabul. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken declared that the Taliban had violated promises to reject terrorism
made during a deal with former president Donald Trump to withdraw US troops.
The new fund will not go to assistance. In a
statement, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said that the US has
contributed $814 million in humanitarian aid since the Taliban takeover,
channeled through international agencies and aid groups and not given to the
Taliban.
The Afghan Fund will help “reduce suffering and improve
economic stability for the people of Afghanistan while continuing to hold the
Taliban accountable,” Sherman said.
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