United States: The Taliban will not be able to obtain reserves from the Central Bank of Afghanistan | Business and Economic News

US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said on Tuesday that maintaining US sanctions on the Taliban is crucial.

US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adjemo said that he believes that the Taliban, which regained power in Afghanistan in August, will not be allowed to use the reserves of the Central Bank of Afghanistan held mainly in the United States.

“We believe that we must maintain the sanctions against the Taliban, but at the same time try to provide legal humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. This is exactly what we are doing,” Adejemo told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday.

The Taliban called on the United States to lift the ban on holding over 9 billion U.S. dollars of Afghan central bank reserves outside Afghanistan because the government is working hard to contain the deepening economic crisis.

After the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, the Taliban was dismissed by the US-led army for nearly 20 years. After the United States withdrew, the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in August.

With a serious humanitarian crisis looming in Afghanistan, the United States and other Western countries have been making difficult choices. They have been working hard to study how to contact the Taliban without granting legitimacy, while ensuring that humanitarian aid flows into the country.

“Our goal is to ensure that we are implementing sanctions against the Taliban and the Haqqani network, but at the same time allowing humanitarian aid to flow into the country,” Adejemo said.

The Haqqani Network is an organization affiliated with the Taliban, headquartered near the Pakistani border and blamed for some of the worst suicide attacks in the war.

Adeyemo said that the Treasury Department is taking all possible steps within its sanctions regime to show humanitarian groups that Washington wants to facilitate the flow of aid to the Afghan people, but warned that for humanitarian aid to flow, the Taliban must allow it to flow in the country. happen.

Although the United States imposed sanctions on the Taliban, the Ministry of Finance last month paved the way for aid to Afghanistan, and the Taliban issued two general licenses.