US to decide on Afghan bank reserves on basis of Taliban's future conduct
Oct 12, 2021
Washington [US], October 13 : Following in-person talks with the Taliban in Doha last week, the United States on Tuesday (local time) said that it will make a decision regarding Afghanistan's bank reserves on the basis of the future government's conduct.
"When it comes to central bank reserves, we will judge and interact with any future Afghan government on the basis of its conduct and its conduct in key areas," US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a press briefing.
The Biden administration has decided to freeze billions of dollars of Afghanistan government reserves held in the US financial institutions to halt the Taliban from accessing these funds.
The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August and the US military ended its 20 years of military presence in the country. In the subsequent weeks, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund suspended financial aid to the country.
Additionally, the US also froze billions of dollars in assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank.
Last week, the delegations from the US and the Taliban held discussions on humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan during the weekend's talks in Doha. Taliban had urged the US to unfreeze its account.
During the presser today, Price added that there has been progress on the talks on Afghanistan, on a number of fronts. "I think there were productive discussions on the issue of humanitarian assistance," the spokesperson said, referring to the Doha talks, the first in-person meeting since the US drawdown from Afghanistan in August.
He also informed about another meeting of US and European representatives with the Taliban in Qatar to discuss important issues, including the safe passage of evacuees out of Afghanistan.
"One (meeting) was a US-Europe meeting with the Taliban that took place today," Price said.
"That group (of European countries), a broader set of our allies and partners, met with Taliban representatives to reinforce some of these same issues - safe passage, the importance of counterterrorism, the imperative of respecting human rights, including the rights of all of Afghanistan citizens, its minorities, its women, its girls, the need for access to women and girls to all aspects of society, inclusive governance," he added.
