The Central Bank of Afghanistan rejects the US appropriation of its funds

MADRID, Feb. 12 (Royals Blue) –

The Central Bank of Afghanistan has rejected this Saturday the decision adopted by the United States to appropriate its funds in the country to redirect the money to humanitarian aid and legal litigation of victims of the September 11 attacks, a purpose the latter “irrelevant” , in the opinion of the entity.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, ordered this Friday the unfreezing of some 3,500 million dollars (about 3,000 million euros) in paralyzed assets of the Central Bank to facilitate humanitarian aid to the Central Asian country, right now devastated after decades of conflict that culminated in the victory of the Taliban movement and the consequent suspension of the international aid programs that remained in force with the ousted Afghan government.

Biden’s executive order implies that the United States first assumes partial “protection”, as described in the White House note, of the approximately 7,000 million dollars (6,100 million euros) of paralyzed assets of the Central Bank in the United States.

Of these, 3,500 million will go to humanitarian aid and the other half to a fund for the ongoing litigation of victims of terrorism in the United States, in particular the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The order is designed, the White House explained, “with the intention of opening a path for the funds to reach the people of Afghanistan, while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and other malicious actors,” as the United States describes them, before recalling that right now there are sanctions in place against the Taliban and their associates in the Haqqani network “for activities that threaten the security of Americans.”

In response, the Central Bank of Afghanistan recalls that these funds are necessary “to implement monetary policy, facilitate international trade and stabilize the financial sector” and that “the real owners of these reserves are the citizens of Afghanistan.”

“These reserves,” adds the Central Bank, “were not and are not owned by governments, parties and groups and will never be used according to their demands and decisions.”

For all these reasons, the Central Bank considers this reallocation as an “injustice” for the Afghan people, no matter how much it is “in the name of compensation or humanitarian aid” and calls for “the revocation of the decision and the release of all reserves Afghan foreign exchange”.