The United States should unfreeze the international reserves of Afghanistan's Central Bank; the situation, in which the US authorities illegally withhold financial resources from Kabul, is unacceptable. This is stated in a commentary of the Russian Embassy in Washington, issued on Thursday.
"We have recorded a letter published by the Center for Economic and Policy Research of more than 70 economists from the US and other countries of the world with a call to unfreeze all international reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan. We fully support this appeal. We find it unacceptable that US authorities are illegally withholding financial resources that belong to the Afghan people.
We consider cynical their bargaining with Kabul on the conditions of granting him half of the amount", was said in the Telegram channel of the press service of the diplomatic mission.
The embassy recalled that "the population of Afghanistan is experiencing an unprecedented socio-economic crisis." "Washington's actions exacerbate the suffering of innocent Afghans and provoke the largest humanitarian disaster in the Asian country. We call on the administration to reconsider its decision and release the international assets of the sovereign state," Russian diplomats concluded.
The Taliban movement (banned in the Russian Federation) launched a large-scale operation to take control of Afghanistan after the US announced in the spring of 2021 its decision to withdraw its armed forces. On August 15, the radicals entered Kabul without fighting, and on September 7 they announced the composition of the provisional government, the legitimacy of which was not recognized by any country. The US had previously frozen $7 billion in Afghanistan's central bank reserves.
Despite the measures taken by the Taliban, the economic situation in Afghanistan remains extremely difficult. According to the UN, 22.8 million Afghans are undernourished and 8.7 million people go hungry. This is largely due to the fact that radicals have access to only 0.1% of government reserves (of $9.4 billion) because much of it is frozen by the United States. In addition, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck six provinces of the country on the night of June 22. According to the reports of Afghan mass-media, the catastrophe took lives of over a thousand people, at least 2 thousand were injured. Many countries assisted the Afghan people.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS