ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday called for returning all Afghanistan’s assets after President Joe Biden administration freed and split $7 billion between humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and a fund for September 11 victims.
In a statement on Saturday, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said that Pakistan had seen the United States decision to unfreeze the Afghan assets held by the U.S. banks to release $3.5 billion for humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan and $3.5 billion for compensation to families of 9/11 victims.
Responding to media queries, he said: “Over the past several months, Pakistan had 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 were inextricably linked”.
“Finding ways to unfreeze the Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people.”
He said Pakistan’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that these were owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released.
“The utilization of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan,” the spokesperson added.
The FO spokesperson highlighted that Afghan people were 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,” he added.
Biden splits Afghan assets
The White House said Biden will seek to funnel $3.5 billion of the frozen funds into a humanitarian aid trust “for the benefit of the Afghan people and for Afghanistan’s future.”
The trust fund will manage the aid in a way that bypasses the Taliban authorities, a senior US official told reporters, countering likely criticism in Washington that the Biden administration is inadvertently boosting its former enemy.
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