Afghans protest US order to give $3.5bn to 9/11 victims, central banks demands reversal of decision

[ghazi52]

Afghans protest US order to give $3.5bn to 9/11 victims, central banks demands reversal of decision​

AP | Dawn.com | Naveed Siddiqui
February 12, 2022

Afghan protesters hold placards and shout slogans against US during a protest condemning President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP

Afghan protesters hold placards and shout slogans against US during a protest condemning President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP

Afghan protesters hold placards and shout slogans against US during a protest condemning President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP



Demonstrators in Afghanistan’s capital on Saturday condemned US President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the US for families of America’s 9/11 victims — saying the money belongs to Afghans.

Protesters who gathered outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank or DAB, also opposed the move, calling it "an injustice to the people of Afghanistan" and demanding that the decision be withdrawn.

"DAB considers the latest decision of [the] USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes [an] injustice to the people of Afghanistan and will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan [are] paid [in] the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others, and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan," it said in a press release.


The bank said the "real owners" of the said assets were the people of Afghanistan.

"These reserves were not and [are] not the property of governments, parties and groups and [are] never used as per their demand and decisions," it added.

With regards to the management of the assets, the bank highlighted: "Considering the specified objectives, the FX reserves of Afghanistan is managed based on the international practices. [The] condition of these reserves are regularly and precisely monitored by DAB. A certain portion of these reserves [is] invested in the USA as per the accepted rules to be secure and be available to DAB for achieving the determined objectives."

'What about our Afghan people?'​

Biden’s order, signed on Friday, allocates another $3.5bn in Afghan assets for humanitarian aid to a trust fund to be managed by the UN to provide aid to Afghans. The country’s economy is teetering on the brink of collapse after international money stopped coming into Afghanistan with the arrival in mid-August of the Taliban.

At the protest in Kabul, misspelled placards in English accused the US of being cruel and of stealing the money of Afghans.

“What about our Afghan people who gave many sacrifices and thousands of losses of lives?” asked the demonstration’s organiser, Abdul Rahman, a civil society activist.

Rahman said he planned to organise more demonstrations across the capital to protest Biden’s order. “This money belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not to the United States. This is the right of Afghans,” he said.


Torek Farhadi, a financial adviser to Afghanistan’s former US-backed government, questioned the UN managing Afghan Central Bank reserves. He said those funds are not meant for humanitarian aid but “to back up the country’s currency, help in monetary policy and manage the country’s balance of payment.”

He also questioned the legality of Biden’s order.

“These reserves belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban ... Biden’s decision is one-sided and does not match with international law,” said Farhadi. “No other country on earth makes such confiscation decisions about another country’s reserves.”

Afghanistan has about $9bn in assets overseas, including the $7bn in the United States. The rest is mostly in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

Condemnation on Twitter​

Biden’s Friday order generated a social media storm with Twitter saying #USAstolemoneyfromafghan was trending among Afghans. Tweets repeatedly pointed out that the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, not Afghans.
Taliban political spokesperson Mohammad Naeem accused the Biden administration in a tweet late on Friday of showing “the lowest level of humanity ... of a country and a nation.”

Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan and a social activist, tweeted: “Let’s remind the world that #AfghansDidntCommit911 and that #BidenStealingAfgMoney!”


Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the US-based Wilson Centre, called Biden’s order to divert $3.5 billion away from Afghanistan “heartless.”
“It’s great that $3.5bn in new humanitarian aid for Afghanistan has been freed up. But to take another $3.5bn that belongs to the Afghan people, and divert it elsewhere — that is misguided and quite frankly heartless,” he tweeted.


Kugelman also said the opposition to Biden’s order crossed Afghanistan’s wide political divide.
“I can’t remember the last time so many people of such vastly different worldviews were so united over a US policy decision on Afghanistan,” he tweeted.

Pakistan's stance​

Neighbouring Pakistan, which has been urging the world not to abandon Afghanistan, unfreeze its assets, and ensure the delivery of aid and assistance to the war-ravaged country that faces a humanitarian crisis, also issued a statement explaining its position on the matter.

"Over the past several months, Pakistan has been consistently emphasising the need for the international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked. Finding ways to unfreeze Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

It added that "Pakistan’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that these are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released. The utilisation of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan."

"The Afghan people are facing grave economic and humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings. Time is of the essence," the FO concluded.

 

[Menace2Society]

US would have nuked Afg but they took mercy on you. Count yourself lucky and move on with life.

 

[FuturePAF]

US would have nuked Afg but they took mercy on you. Count yourself lucky and move on with life.

You are correct, Pakistan under IK helped Trump better understand the Afghan situation.

But on the Aid, the US might as well give half the money to US companies to send Humanitarian aid and call it a day. Pay the 9/11 families the other half and end the case so Afghans and Afghanistan can move on an rebuild themselves and work out their disputes internally.

Ending the 9/11 cases (through paying compensation) should hopefully open up banking channels for Afghans. Biden is tying up the loose ends of these wars, so America can better compete with China without distractions.

 

[CrazyZ]

US would have nuked Afg but they took mercy on you. Count yourself lucky and move on with life.

Afghans have had a rough 40 years. They have been exploited and lied to by the USA numerous times. Previous puppet regime looted most of the aid they received from abroad and pursued dumb geopolitics. Pakistan always expected a USA double cross so hedged its bets. Biden actions only reinforce that was the correct position. Afghans should blame the stupidity of the Karzai and Ghani regimes for their current position.....they pursued policies that made Afghanistan completely beholden to USA and India.....nations that in the end abandoned them.

 

[Menace2Society]

Afghans have had a rough 40 years. They have been exploited and lied to by the USA numerous times. Previous puppet regime looted most of the aid they received from abroad and pursued dumb geopolitics. Pakistan always expected a USA double cross so hedged its bets. Biden actions only reinforce that was the correct position. Afghans should blame the stupidity of the Karzai and Ghani regimes for their current position.....they pursued policies that made Afghanistan completely beholden to USA and India.....nations that in the end abandoned them.

Afghan warlords did nothing for their people and took Bin Laden $$$ and attacked their cold war ally and took the country to war against a opponent who were about to Hiroshima them. Nobody owes them anything.

 

[CrazyZ]

Afghan warlords did nothing for their people and took Bin Laden $$$ and attacked their cold war ally and took the country to war against a opponent who were about to Hiroshima them. Nobody owes them anything.

Afghan war lords are fine....they all have mansions in Socal. In the end it is always the common man that suffers.

 

[Trango Towers]

US would have nuked Afg but they took mercy on you. Count yourself lucky and move on with life.

Nuking someone is not the same as when your mother slaps you....although that feels like a nuke. People throw the word nuke around like it's child's play.

Stealing money from the poor has always been the west's forte. They became rich from stealing be it Africa Asia or the Americas. White have always stolen

 

[Dual Wielder]

The old swine is ensuring there is a famine In Afghanistan in which Pakistan will be no doubt forced to bear a significant burden henceforth, they used Afghanistan to launder trillions whilst slaughtering millions of its people. They ignored 9/11 victims for over 20 years, and now all of a sudden they care, and to top it off the genocide victims will bear the costs. The US is truly the b4stard child of the British Empire.

 

[Cash GK]

Defeat of so called modalities. This will bite back usa repo for centuries to come. This moral Defeat is to much for usa. Even i doubt modalities when it comes to usa.

 

[ghazi52]

Afghan central bank rejects US order to seize its foreign reserves
​

https://nation.com.pk/NewsSource/haber

Anadolu​

February 13, 2022

Afghanistan's central bank on Saturday rejected US President Joe Biden's executive order to seize half of $7 billion in assets held in US financial institutions, saying the money belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not any government or group.

In a statement, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) stated that the decision to block their foreign exchange reserves and allocate them to “irrelevant” purposes is an injustice to the people of Afghanistan.

It will never accept the country’s reserves being paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others, and urged reversal of the decision and the release of all the reserves, it said.

Biden issued an executive order on Friday splitting Afghanistan's central bank's $7 billion in assets, allocating half for humanitarian relief to the poverty-stricken country ravaged by 42 years of war, while keeping the other half available for compensation to victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Qaeda, which the US holds responsible for the attacks, had taken shelter in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, when the Taliban was in power. An interim Taliban administration returned to power last August.

According to the Afghan bank, it is responsible for preserving and managing the country's foreign reserves in line with international law. The foreign reserves are utilized to implement monetary policy, facilitate international trade, and stabilize the financial sector, it added.

"The real owners of these reserves are the people of Afghanistan. These reserves were not and are not the property of governments, parties, or groups and are never used as per their demand or decisions," it said.

It emphasized that the foreign reserves are managed in line with international practices, and the condition of these reserves is regularly and carefully monitored.
The statement noted that a certain portion of these reserves is invested in the US as per the accepted rules to be secure and be available for the bank to achieve its determined objectives.

 

[Oom]

Basically this leaves Afghan central bank with only 2 billion dollars- which are also frozen.

Afghan is so horribly screwed economically. The situation is about to become worse. It likely that by the end of the year, wording economics and other factors will lead to infighting between Afghans. And they will be back to killing each other as before.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

In doing what USA has done it will shoot it self on foot as foreign countries will prefer to move their foreign reserves out of USA influence

A peace treaty means peace treaty , stealing 10 billion dollar reserves goes against the principles of any peaceful treaty and instead fuels mistrust

Since this is a dealing between USA-Afghanistan Government , we as Pakistan don't have a say in it , however , from rules of treaty implementation this looks very negatively

 

[Khanate]

We care about human rights but not human lives

The deep irony of the liberal order

The old swine is ensuring there is a famine In Afghanistan in which Pakistan will be no doubt forced to bear a significant burden henceforth, they used Afghanistan to launder trillions whilst slaughtering millions of its people. They ignored 9/11 victims for over 20 years, and now all of a sudden they care, and to top it off the genocide victims will bear the costs. The US is truly the b4stard child of the British Empire.

Like Churchill's Britian, US is engineering an artificial famine

 

[SoulSpokesman]

Despicable act by an illegitimate US Prez

Regards

 

[ghazi52]

Taliban call on Biden to reverse move to halve frozen Afghan funds​

Reuters
February 15, 2022

A Taliban fighter walks on a street, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in this Feb 6 file photo. — AP

The Taliban on Monday warned that it would reconsider its policy towards the United States if President Joe Biden did not reverse his "unjustified" decision to return only half of Afghanistan's $7 billion deposited on US soil.

The United States will free up half of the $7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on US soil to help Afghans struggling with a humanitarian crisis and hold the rest to possibly satisfy terrorism-related lawsuits against the Taliban.

"If the United States does not deviate from its position and continues its provocative actions, the Islamic Emirate will also be forced to reconsider its policy towards the country," said a statement from the Taliban released by its spokesman on Monday.

"The Islamic Emirate strongly rejects Biden's unjustified actions as a violation of the rights of all Afghans," it added.

Biden's plan calls for half of the funds to remain in the United States subject to ongoing litigation by US victims of terrorism, including relatives of those who died in the Sept 11, 2001, hijacking attacks.

"The 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with Afghans," the Taliban statement said.

While none of the Sept 11, 2001, hijackers were Afghan, the mastermind of the attacks, Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, was given refuge by the then Taliban government.

The statement said the United States will face "international blame" and damage its relations with Afghans if the decision was not reversed.

Separately, in an interview to the Afghan state media RTA, Mullah Yaqoob — the acting Afghan defence minister and the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar — also termed the decision "cruel".

"No Afghan was involved in that incident (9/11) at all," said Yaqoob, whose father was the Taliban's supreme leader at the time of the attacks and refused to hand over bin Laden, following which the United States sent in its military to Afghanistan.

The invasion started a 20-year war that ended only last year after the United States and other international militaries pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban to take over once again.