By Mashal Afghan 

KABUL (TSAT) - The Afghan Central Bank [Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB)] has rejected the US President Joe Biden decision to distribute its money among 9/11 victims families and said the frozen money belongs to Afghan people not the current Taliban government.

In a statement, the bank said the Central Bank of Afghanistan is responsible to preserve and manage the International Foreign Exchange [FX] Reserves of the country as per the law and the US President decision is against the international laws. 

“Objectives of FX Reserves: As per the law and relevant regulations, FX reserves of Afghanistan are used to implement monetary policy, facilitate international trade and stabilize financial sector,” it’s said. 

The bank added that the owners of these money are the Afghan people and its not the property of the government, or any group or parties.

“Management of FX Reserves: Considering the specified objectives, the FX reserves of Afghanistan is managed based on the international practices. Condition of these reserves are regularly and precisely monitored by DAB. A certain portion of these reserves are invested in the USA as per the accepted rules to be secure and be available to DAB for achieving the determined objectives,” said the central bank.

“Therefore, DAB considers the latest decision of USA on blocking FX reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes, injustice to the people of Afghanistan and will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan is paid under the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan.”

On Friday,  the US President Joe Biden has announced to unfreeze Afghan government assets and only half amount will send to Afghanistan.

The decision has called an “strange and unique” in the US history as the President used its power and would be held $3.5 billion in the US which is belongs to the Afghan people. 

“As part of our ongoing work to address the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan, President Biden signed an Executive Order (E.O.) to help enable certain U.S.-based assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (“DAB”), to be used to benefit the Afghan people,” said in a statement issued from the White House.

However, the White House said that $3.5 billion out of the total $7 billion Afghan government assets will use for humanitarian assistance of Afghan people while the remaining $3.5 billion will hold in the US until the court case that filed the 9/11 attacks victims families against Afghan Taliban.

“Reserve of Da Afghanistan Bank does not belong to governments or factions but it is property of the people of Afghanistan. It is only used for implementation of monetary policy, facilitation of trade and boosting of financial system of the country. It is never intended to be used for any other purpose rather than that,” said Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban government nominees for the United Nations.

 “It’s freezing or disbursement unilaterally for any other purpose is injustice and not acceptable to the people of Afghanistan,” he added.

Earlier on Saturday, several foreign countries also called the US President decision is against the international laws and urged the White House to reverse it decision.

“Over the past several months, Pakistan has been consistently emphasising the need for international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked. Finding ways to unfreeze the Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people,” said the Pakistan Foreign Ministry of Pakistan in a statement.

Islamabad added that it’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that these assets are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released. 

“The utilization of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan,” said the foreign ministry.

Pakistan said the currently the Afghan people are facing grave economic and humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings. 

“Time is of the essence.”

According to the United Nations, over 23 million Afghans are currently living under the below poverty line and most of them lost their jobs and facing starvation because of economic crisis which caused by the US economic sanctions on Afghanistan.