Move on Afghan funds panned

Experts attack US decision to keep half of $7b in frozen assets of war-torn nation

A decision by the White House to retain half of the $7 billion in frozen Afghan funds held in the United States has been denounced as unfair by observers.

Under an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden on Friday, the holdings will be split, with half going ultimately to the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks and the other half set aside for potential humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

Inamullah Samangani, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, on Saturday criticized Washington's "unfair" decision to compensate the victims of the terror attacks with Afghanistan's assets.

Following the withdrawal of the US and other Western troops from Afghanistan in August, the US and international institutions froze almost $10 billion worth of assets of Afghanistan's central bank. That move exacerbated the economic crisis and widespread poverty in the war-torn country. Of the frozen funds, roughly $7 billion was placed on deposit by the erstwhile Afghan government with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

The frozen funds belong to Afghanistan, "and should not be divided or given elsewhere without Afghan permission", said Amina Khan, director of the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East and Africa at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, in Pakistan.

The Biden administration's decision to divert the funds is unfair and disingenuous, she said. "While 9/11 victims need compensation, it should not come at the cost of Afghan assets," said Khan. Moreover, there are "other ways to compensate victims".

Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies and a lecturer in international relations at Padjadjaran University in Indonesia, said the US decision is "totally unfair".

While people "certainly sympathize with the families of the Sept 11 victims, it must be remembered that the perpetrators of this terrorist act were not Afghans at all", Sulaeman said.

"The frozen funds belong to the Afghan people, so they should be handed over to the Afghan people," she said.

"The Afghan people are in a dire situation … as a result of the 20 years of the US and NATO occupation," the expert said.

"Instead of taking the Afghan funds, Washington should provide compensation for the various devastations suffered by the Afghan people as a result of the US war on terror."

Salman Bashir, a former Pakistani ambassador to China, questioned how the US can justify its decision "politically and morally, to deprive the Afghan people, even partially, of their own foreign currency reserves, at a moment of their greatest weakness".

Kamaruzaman Bin Yusoff, a Middle East political analyst and former professor of Middle Eastern politics at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, described the US move as "totally unacceptable".

"Taking people's money to give it to Americans－under what basis can the US argue that the money should be given to them, but not the Afghans? So, this action is totally unfair, injustice, and beyond any justification."

Verge of collapse

Khan said it is important for the US to remember that Afghanistan is on the verge of economic collapse and that the nation is also suffering a huge humanitarian crisis, therefore the "very notion that the US can take Afghanistan assets is deeply concerning".

She said the US should return all the frozen Afghan funds back to Afghanistan, and that the 9/11 victims be compensated through a different mechanism.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing on Monday that Afghanistan's overseas assets belong to the Afghan people and should be returned to the country for the benefit of its people.

He said the US action in taking possession of the overseas assets of Afghanistan in accordance with its domestic law reveals the true colors of the US as a hegemonic power under the guise of adhering to the rules-based international order.

Noting that the US is the one to be blamed for the Afghan crisis, Wang said that the US should reflect on its past mistakes, take on its international responsibility, and lift its freeze on Afghan assets and unilateral sanctions as soon as possible.

Xinhua and Mo Jingxi in Beijing contributed to this story.