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US, Taliban to discuss releasing frozen Afghan funds after earthquake
Officials say the US and the Taliban will hold discussions in Qatar on Thursday about unfreezing part of Afghanistan's reserves in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, especially after Washington allocated half of the frozen sum to 9/11 victims' families, which Taliban at the time slammed as theft and moral decline of the US.
According to The New York Times, the intricate strategy is intended to address a slew of legal blockages originating from the September 11 attacks and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The White House claimed it is working "urgently" on the endeavor, but an Afghan central bank board member indicated it could take some time to complete.
The Taliban's Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has arrived in the Qatari capital of Doha for talks, according to Taliban Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmed.
The State Department said its ambassador to Afghanistan, Tom West, would participate, and said the US was interested in a variety of issues, including human rights and opening schools for girls.
Frozen funds
At the time, Washington froze $7 billion in reserves, while the international community suspended billions in direct help that Afghanistan and its 40 million people had relied on.
Although some help has been restored, the currency has fallen and the country has descended into a catastrophic economic catastrophe.
The 5.9-magnitude earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan last week, killing over 1,500 people and displacing tens of thousands, adds urgency to the funding argument.
"Negotiations are underway and it is our expectation that a final proposal under discussion will be finalized," said Shah Mehrabi, member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.
However, details on "the mechanism to transfer the reserves to the Central Bank has not been finalized," he told AFP. "It is going to take a while. These things do not happen overnight."
'Get these funds moving'
On her part, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that steps were ongoing "to get these cash moving" from the frozen reserves.
"We are urgently working to address complicated questions about the use of these funds to ensure they benefit the people of Afghanistan and not the Taliban," she told reporters traveling with President Joe Biden to Europe.
The frozen deposits amount to $3.5 billion, which is half of the total amount banned by the US government, with the other half being stolen by the US as described by The Guardian, which reported that taking Afghan money to pay grieving Americans in order to punish the Taliban is nothing less than larceny as collective punishment.
"I have argued that these reserves should be released to the Central Bank," said Shah Mehrabi, member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.
He proposed a "limited, monitored release of reserves" of about $150 million each month to pay for imports. That would help "stabilize prices and help meet the needs of ordinary Afghans so that they can afford to buy bread, cooking oil, sugar, and fuel," alleviating the misery of families facing high inflation, he said.