Of all the actions the Biden administration could take on Afghanistan, command of the country’s foreign exchange reserves is particularly unhelpful. In an executive order last week, President Joe Biden began the process of releasing $7 billion in Afghan Central Bank funds held at the Federal Reserve. It confiscated those assets after US and NATO forces withdrew after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last August. His plan proposes to direct $3.5 billion into a trust fund for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, while another $3.5 billion is set aside for the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks in the US.
The problem is that the US does not own that money: Afghanistan has. It is understandable that Washington does not want to give billions of dollars to the Taliban. No one wants cash to go to a regime that was abandoned two decades ago, restricting girls’ access to schools and universities, preventing women from working, kidnapping protesters and journalists from their homes. and killing opponents.
But as the United Nations and other humanitarian groups work to persuade the US and the World Bank to ease Afghanistan’s economic blockade, the White House’s latest actions are clearly counterproductive.
More than half of the country’s nearly 40 million people face acute hunger and a million children are at risk of dying amid the severe cold, UN chief Antonio Guterres said in January to humanitarian aid from the World Bank. It called for an immediate release of $1.2 billion in the Reconstruction Fund. Inject crisis and liquidity to prevent economic collapse. It transferred $280 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Program just a month earlier.
But, as pointed out by many experts, you cannot feed an entire nation with help. David Miliband, chairman of the International Rescue Committee and former UK foreign secretary, said in a recent statement to the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, “Aid cannot be made for an economy deprived of oxygen.” “The humanitarian community did not choose the government, but it is not an excuse to punish the people, and there is a middle ground – helping the Afghan people without embracing the new government,” Miliband wrote.
Let’s remember that this entire crisis stemmed from a poorly planned American withdrawal after two decades of war and there appears to be a complete lack of foresight as to how to deal with it. In the uproar that followed last week’s announcement, Afghanistan and its diaspora pointed out clearly: this appears to be a backward attempt to punish Afghanistan for its role in the 2001 attacks on the US. If so, it was beyond the target. Of the origins of the 9/11 hijackers, 15 came from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, and one each from Lebanon and Egypt. There was no Afghan. The Taliban, which ruled much of the country, had given asylum to Osama bin Laden; But, given that the average age of Afghans today is 18, those attacks happened before many people were even born.
As Obaidullah Bahir, lecturer in transitional justice at the American University of Afghanistan, told the BBC, there is deep anger and disappointment at the US decision. He said that money is the basis of the Afghan currency and it is not meant for aid. “Afghanistan needs a sustainable economy if it is to survive for a long time, and federal reserves are fundamental to this.”
Meanwhile, Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office in Qatar, tweeted that the seizure of Da Afghanistan Bank reserves was “theft” and a sign of “moral collapse”.
The US and its allies have rightly demanded that the Taliban form a more inclusive government, guarantee the rights of women and ethnic minorities, allow girls to go to school and university, and ties to terrorist groups before any money is released. Break it
But there are measures in place to ensure that an entire country does not fall into famine. As Human Rights Watch suggested on 11 February, the World Bank may require that all banking transactions be monitored by independent auditors in order to address concerns that the Afghan Central Bank may be preventing assets from providing enrich the Taliban.
If Biden’s plan is implemented, John Sifton, Human Rights Watch’s Asia advocacy advisor, wrote, “it would set a problematic precedent for the command of sovereign wealth and the underlying factors driving Afghanistan’s massive humanitarian crisis.” will do little to address it.” The entire $7 billion “already legally” belonged to the Afghan people.” The Biden administration needs to reconsider its decision and show some political will to help pull Afghanistan out of the crisis.
Ruth Pollard is a columnist and editor with Bloomberg Opinion.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint.
download
Our App Now!!
,