A delegation from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban arrived in Qatar on Wednesday to discuss with the United States a mechanism to release funds after a deadly earthquake in their country, with Washington seeking to ensure they are used for humanitarian purposes.
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Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi came to Doha with finance ministry and central bank officials to negotiate with US Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West, the official said on Twitter. spokesman for the Taliban’s foreign ministry, Hafiz Zia Ahmed.
After the Taliban seized power in August 2021, Washington in February seized $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves deposited in the United States.
Joe Biden wanted half of this sum to be reserved for the compensation of the families of victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States and the other half for humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, but paid in such a way as to that the money does not fall into the hands of the Taliban.
However, the country, already affected by a severe economic crisis, was hit last week by an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 in the east of the country, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving thousands homeless.
“We are working hard to resolve difficult questions about the use of these funds to ensure that they benefit the Afghan people and not the Taliban,” said House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre last week. -White.
A board member of the Central Bank of Afghanistan confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that negotiations were underway, but warned that it could take some time.
“The details of the mechanism for transferring reserves to the central bank have not been finalized,” said Shah Mehrabi, also an economics professor at Montgomery College in Maryland (eastern United States).
“It’s going to take time, this stuff doesn’t happen overnight.”
The US State Department had not immediately confirmed the holding of negotiations.
For Mr. Mehrabi, 3.5 billion dollars of the reserves should be returned to the Afghan Central Bank. He proposes for his part “a limited and controlled release of reserves, such as 150 million per month to pay for imports”.
Such a measure would help support the Afghan currency, stabilize prices and allow Afghans to buy basic products such as bread, oil, sugar and even fuel, explains the economist.
The use of the funds “can be independently monitored and audited by external audit firms with the possibility of terminating them in the event of misuse,” says Mr Mehrabi.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 24 million Afghans, more than half of the country’s population, need urgent humanitarian aid.