Taliban meet with US over release of Afghan funds frozen after earthquake | world News

Officials said that the plan of the United States and the Taliban is holding talks Thursday in Qatar about opening some of Afghanistan’s reserves in the wake of the devastating earthquake, as Washington seeks ways to ensure that the money is spent to help the population.

The White House said it was working “urgently” on the effort, but a member of the Afghan Central Bank’s board said it could take some time to finish.

Hafiz Zia Ahmed, a spokesman for the Taliban’s foreign ministry, said Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki had arrived in the Qatari capital, Doha, accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank for talks.

Also read: The Taliban’s Urgent Appeal to the West After the Deadly Earthquake That Devastated Afghanistan

The State Department said its special envoy for Afghanistan, Tom West, would participate, and said the United States was focusing on a range of interests including human rights and opening schools for girls.

“None of these engagements should be seen as ‘legitimizing’ the Taliban or their so-called government, but merely a reflection of the fact that we need such discussions in order to advance American interests,” a State Department spokesperson said. Department that does not recognize the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban took over in August 2021 after the United States abandoned a 20-year military effort.

At that time, Washington froze $7 billion in reserves and the international community suspended billions of direct aid on which Afghanistan and its population of about 40 million depended.

The currency collapsed and the country plunged into a serious economic crisis, although some help has been restored.

Last week’s 5.9-magnitude earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, which killed more than 1,000 people and displaced tens of thousands, adds to the urgency of the funding discussion.

“Negotiations are underway and we expect to finalize a final proposal under discussion,” said Shah Mehrabi, a member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

He told AFP that the details of “the mechanism for transferring reserves to the central bank have not been completed yet.”

“It’s going to take some time. These things don’t happen overnight.”

White House press secretary Karen Jean-Pierre said over the weekend that efforts were underway to “move this money” out of frozen reserves.

“We are working urgently to address the complex questions about the use of this money to make sure it benefits the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban,” she told reporters traveling with President Joe Biden to Europe.

In question is $3.5 billion in frozen reserves, half of the total raised by the US government.

Also Read: At least two earthquakes were felt across Kodagu, Dakshina Kannada and Chikkaballapur

“I have argued that these reserves should be released to the central bank,” said Mehrabi, who is also a professor of economics at Montgomery College in the suburbs of the US capital.

He proposed a “limited and controlled release of reserves” of about $150 million a month to pay for imports.

This would help “price stability and help meet the needs of ordinary Afghans so that they can buy bread, cooking oil, sugar and fuel,” he said, relieving the misery of families facing high inflation.

He said the use of the funds “can be independently monitored and reviewed by external audit firms with the option to terminate in the event of misuse.”

The United Nations has warned that half of the country is threatened by food shortages.

The United States earlier said it was contributing about $55 million to relief efforts made more urgent by the earthquake, and directed aid to groups operating in Afghanistan.

Read also: India stands by Afghanistan, says PM Modi as earthquake kills at least 1,000 people

The United States still considers the Taliban a terrorist group, which has insisted that any improvement in relations would depend on meeting key concerns, including the treatment of women.

Biden in February gave the green light to the other half of the frozen reserves to compensate survivors and families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which led to the invasion in which the United States toppled the Taliban and kept it afloat. Western government for two decades.

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