Afghan Women Protest US Frozen Assets’ Theft and Redistribution

Dozens of Afghan women protested Friday in Kabul against U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to seize $7 billion in Afghan assets and devote half of it to compensation payments to victims of Sept. 11, 2001, instead of allowing the funds to be used to address the humanitarian catastrophe facing the nation.

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The Afghans asked Biden to reconsider his position on the grounds that the country is sinking deeper into economic crisis and that the assets must remain to support the economy. 

The president's decision comes after acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi's talks with a U.S. official in Doha, Qatar, to whom he expressed that the decision to hold the assets is unacceptable.

The Taliban warned this week that they would reconsider their policy toward the U.S. if Washington does not reverse the decision to seize those funds. The group that rules the Central Asian nation declared that they have nothing to do with the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. 

The Taliban statement added that this U.S. resolution constitutes a violation of the agreement reached with the Islamic Emirate.

According to former UN Special Representative to Afghanistan, Thomas West, this is the wrong decision. However, he noted that Biden's decision was misinterpreted.

Experts agree that the lack of funds in the reserve will be detremental for the Afghan economic sector.

Biden signed a decree to seize $7 billion from the Central Bank of Afghanistan deposited in U.S. financial institutions and use it for humanitarian aid for the Afghan people and victims of the 9/11 attacks.

These Afghan funds reached the Central Bank of the New York Federal Reserve and other U.S. financial institutions before the Taliban took over Kabul and seized control of the country, explained the U.S. government. Biden requested half of that sum through this decree.