US Takes Grasp Of Afghan Embassy & Consulates In Its Territory

On Monday, the U.S. State Department took control of the Afghan embassy in Washington and its consulates in New York and Beverly Hills, California.

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 “Until further notice, we assume sole responsibility for the diplomatic missions’ security and goods, including archives and financial assets,” the Department stated, considering that the Afghan embassy and consulates had formally ceased conducting diplomatic and consular activities.

The U.S. does recognize the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, which took power in August 2021 after the American and allied troops withdrew, nor has diplomatic relations with this country.

The Department claimed that the U.S. control taking of the facilities did not signal any change in American policy toward Afghanistan since it stemmed from an agreement with diplomats from the former Afghan government who faced financial constraints after the Taliban seized power.

Since October 2021, Afghan diplomats have been living on savings or borrowed money because U.S. Citibank frozen the Afghan embassy’s bank accounts to avoid “violating” American sanctions against the Taliban. 

So far, the Afghan mission has continued operations through dwindling consular service fees. When checks issued to cover passport renewal could no longer be made out to their embassy, the staff started depositing blank money orders into personal bank accounts and met each month to tally embassy revenue.

Despite this situation, Afghanistan never requested the third country to serve as a “protecting power” for its facilities or interests in the U.S., which requested Qatar to serve as the U.S. protecting power in Afghanistan after closing its embassy in Kabul.