U.S. unfreezes billions of Afghan assets to 9/11 victims protests erupt in Kabul
2022-02-13 12:07:41Source: China News Network
China News Service, February 13. According to the US Chinese website, a few days ago, US President Biden ordered the thawing of Afghan assets in the United States and allocated US$3.5 billion from the US$7 billion in assets to the families of the victims of the “9.11” incident. . On the 12th local time, demonstrations broke out in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to protest Biden’s decision, saying that “this asset belongs to the Afghan people.”
Protesters reportedly gathered outside a mosque in Kabul and also demanded financial compensation from the United States for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed in the war in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. Afghanistan’s central bank called on Biden to rescind the order and release funds to the agency.
Statistics show that more than 1 million children in Afghanistan are malnourished and 23 million people suffer from severe famine. By the middle of this year, 97 percent of Afghans could be plunged into poverty.
According to previous reports, in mid-August 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and the US military hurriedly completed the withdrawal. The U.S. government announced at the time that it would freeze about $9.5 billion in assets stored overseas by the Central Bank of Afghanistan. About $7 billion of that is stored in the United States, with the rest in Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Switzerland, among others.
For months, the Taliban have been demanding that the United States unfreeze Afghan assets. Regarding the thawing plan of the United States, Mohammad Naim, a spokesman for the Political Office of the Taliban in Afghanistan, responded that the decision of the United States was an act of theft and a manifestation of moral depravity.
In 2001, the “9.11” terrorist attack in the United States shocked the world. The US government believes that the “Al Qaeda” organization headed by bin Laden is the culprit behind the terrorist attack. On October 7 of the same year, the United States launched the war in Afghanistan.