Addressing the meeting,convened especially to discuss the Afghanistan situation,Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called the crisis “man-made”,and said it was “being created despite knowing that it can be averted if[Afghanistan’s US-based] accounts are unfrozen and liquidity is put into their banking system.”
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The OIC set up a special fund for Afghanistan,and urged member states to contribute.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the administration was “looking intensely at ways to put more liquidity into the Afghan economy,to get more money into people’s pockets,and doing that with international institutions,with other countries and partners,trying to put in place the right mechanisms to do that in a way that doesn’t directly benefit the Taliban but does go directly to the people.”
The Treasury actions announced on Wednesday (Tuesday AEDT) expand on earlier measuresauthorising non-commercial cash remittances to individuals in Afghanistan,and assurances issued to the international commercial banking community that many transactions with Afghanistan could continue without violating US sanctions.
Also on Wednesday,The UN Security Council also unanimously approved a US-sponsored resolution,effective for one year,that largely duplicated the Treasury actions. The Taliban is sanctioned as an organisation,as are about 130 members of its leadership.
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According to a Treasury Department fact sheet,the sanctions do not “prohibit the export or reexport or goods or services to Afghanistan,moving or sending money into and out of Afghanistan,or activities in Afghanistan,provided that such transactions or activities do not involve sanctioned individuals,entities or property in which sanctioned individuals and entities have an interest.”
Newly authorised transactions,it said,“explicitly do not authorise financial transfers to the Taliban or the Haqqani Network,” an affiliated organisation.
The United Nations has appealed for funding to expand a program it set up in October to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of health care workers,with money going directly to them and not through the Taliban government.
“It’s taken time to figure out the mechanisms,” said a senior Biden administration official,speaking on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the administration. “As the situation evolves,we’re going to find new ways to assist.”
Officials have said the administration is not currently considering unfreezing Afghanistan’s frozen reserve funds,noting that they are the subject of litigation by victims of the Sept. 11,2001 terrorist attacks and have been attached by federal courts.
The Washington Post